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At least 14 Israeli soldiers were wounded in strikes on a Bedouin border village in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to the Israeli army, in an attack claimed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
It is the highest number of casualties in a single attack on northern Israel since the frontier conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8.
“Six soldiers were severely injured, two moderately injured and six others were lightly injured,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
Hezbollah said it targeted a military reconnaissance headquarters in the village of Arab Al Aramshe.
The Iran-allied party said the attack, using guided missiles and drones, was in retaliation for Israel’s “assassination of a number of resistance fighters” the day before, when a senior field commander and two fighters were killed in strikes on the Lebanese towns of Ain Baal and Shehabieh.
The Israeli army said it identified a “number of launches from Lebanon” and “struck the sources of the fire”. It added that fighter jets also struck a building where Hezbollah members were operating in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta Ash Shab.
Israel and Hezbollah, along with allied armed groups, have been engaged in a violent conflict since the day after Israel launched its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah says it is carrying out the attacks in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.
Border towns on both sides of the Lebanon-Israel frontier, on the front line of the conflict, have largely been vacated. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced in both countries.
Iran-allied groups across the Middle East have orchestrated attacks against Israel since October, in an attempt to pressure the country away from its assault on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has retaliated by conducting a series of high-level killings of officials in Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), sparking fears of a regional war.
Violence between Hezbollah and Israel had escalated in recent days following Iran's unprecedented retaliation on Israel for the latter's strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus earlier this month.
Iran launched dozens of missiles and drones into Israel at the weekend. The vast majority were intercepted by Israel, the United States, and allied countries. Israel has vowed to retaliate.
