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Times Of Israel
Times Of Israel
22 Oct 2024


NextImg:IDF reservist killed, 3 hurt as Hezbollah rockets pound north, drone triggers alarms

An Israeli reservist was killed and three others were wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel on Tuesday, as dozens of projectiles were fired and a drone infiltration sent a million people to bomb shelters for an hour, with the military persisting in its operation to remove the threat of the Iran-backed terror group.

The slain soldier was named as Master Sgt. (res.) Saar Eliad Navarsky, 27, of the 7338th “Adirim” Artillery Regiment’s 508th Battalion, from Tel Aviv.

Three other soldiers of the artillery battalion were seriously wounded in the same incident, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Ten rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Neot Mordechai area in the Galilee Panhandle amid the attack.

In the afternoon, a separate barrage of some 30 rockets was launched from Lebanon at the Upper and Western Galilee, the IDF said.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said glass shards lightly injured a 32-year-old man. He was taken to a hospital.

Master Sgt. (res.) Saar Eliad Navarsky, who was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on October 22, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The military said some rockets were intercepted, and impacts were identified in the area.

Hezbollah fired at least 65 rockets at Israel on Tuesday, including at central Israel in the morning.

In the evening, sirens warning of a suspected drone infiltration sounded along Israel’s northern coast, sending around a million Israelis into shelters. The IDF Home Front Command said the incident ended after over an hour.

The IDF said the drone was launched from Lebanon and likely impacted an open area, although it hadn’t located it.

According to the military, the drone was first spotted near Rosh Hanikra, and it was tracked as it flew toward the Yokne’am area, amid attempts to intercept it.

From there, the Israeli Air Force lost contact with the drone, but the Home Front Command continued to activate sirens in several towns based on the predicted south-bound route of the drone, including in Haifa and the Krayot area and as far south as Zichron Yaakov and Harish.

Also Tuesday, the Lebanese Sahel Hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs opened its doors to journalists for an unrestricted tour after the IDF claimed that a Hezbollah cash bunker is located beneath it.

The IDF had ordered that the hospital be evacuated Monday night along with other sites across Beirut that wound up being struck during a series of air raids.

Journalists who toured Sahel said they saw no evidence of a Hezbollah cash bunker.

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But the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson issued a tweet addressed to those touring Sahel hospital, offering specific directions for where the bunker is located, “according to the information available to us.”

“We would like to emphasize that the entrance may be hidden using various means that may make it difficult to find,” the spokesperson added.

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Meanwhile, the Israeli fighter jets continued to pursue Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, striking around a dozen command rooms near Tyre, the military said.

The IDF said some of the command rooms belonged to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force.

Israel accused Hezbollah of placing its command centers and other infrastructure within civilian areas of Lebanon.

The IDF said it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strikes, including using precision munitions and issuing evacuation warnings in advance.

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The IDF also released drone footage showing members of the Radwan Force being targeted in an airstrike in southern Lebanon.

Using a drone, soldiers of the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade spotted the two operatives, who were seen armed with an RPG and an assault rifle. The soldiers returned fire, hitting the Radwan members.

The paratroopers then directed an airstrike against the building where the operatives were holed up, killing them, the IDF said.

Additionally, Lebanon’s health ministry said Tuesday that at least 18 people had been killed in an Israeli strike near the Rafic Hariri Hospital, Lebanon’s biggest public health facility, located a few kilometers from the city center.

The IDF said early Tuesday that it did not target the hospital but, rather, struck a Hezbollah terror target.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “appalled” by the strike, demanding a “prompt and thorough investigation.”

“The fundamental principles of international humanitarian law concerning the protection of civilians must be respected.”

Touting Israel’s operations, the chief of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin said that Hezbollah’s defensive forces have been defeated in every area that troops have so far operated in.

“Since we started [Operation] Northern Arrows, we have dealt a very serious blow to Hezbollah’s command and control. Most of [Hezbollah’s] brigade commanders have already been [eliminated] for the third time,” Gordin said during a visit to southern Lebanon this week, in a video distributed by the IDF.

“All the defensive areas we attacked have been defeated. We are determined to reach every [tunnel] shaft, every underground site, every stockpile of weapons,” he added.

Chief of the IDF Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin is seen in southern Lebanon in a handout image published October 22, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Also Tuesday, a Hezbollah spokesman acknowledged that some of the group’s operatives were captured by the Israeli army, without giving numbers, adding that Israel “bears responsibility” for their lives.

Spokesman Mohammed Afif also called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to ascertain their safety, before he was forced to interrupt the press conference after the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee issued an evacuation order for residents of the area.

Afif was filmed as he hastily wrapped up his speech and got up to leave the stage while his assistants removed the microphones. As he left, he was heard saying: “The bombing does not scare us, nor the threats. Our will is firm and our determination is strong.”

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Later, an Associated Press photographer captured the exact moments of an IDF airstrike at the building in Beirut where the press conference had been held. Channel 12 news reported that a Hezbollah bunker holding weapons was located underneath.

A missile launched from an Israeli jet hits a building in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, October 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People watch a building collapse after being hit by an Israeli airstrike in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, October 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

At least 63 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon over the last day, bringing the total death toll to 2,530, the Lebanese government said Tuesday, while not differentiating between civilians and combatants.

Israel in late September widened the focus of its military operations to Lebanon after over a year of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah-led forces in solidarity with Hamas — another Iran-backed terror group — amid the war in Gaza.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, mass invasion and onslaught in southern Israel, due to fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and amid increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 29 civilians. In addition, 44 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

The IDF estimates that around 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.