BEIRUT – Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday morning attacked an Israel Defense Forces unit along the border near the Shebaa Farms, dramatically escalating the already tense situation in the region.
The IDF in a terse tweet said that “initial reports suggest that an anti-tank missile was fired at a military vehicle near Mt. Dov in northern Israel.”
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, issuing a statement saying that "at 11:35 am, the Quneitra Martyrs Group of the Islamic resistance targeted an [Israeli] military convoy."
"[The convoy] consisted of several vehicles carrying Zionist officers and soldiers, and was attacked with [anti-tank] weapons, which led to the destruction of a number of vehicles and caused casualties in the ranks of the enemy."
The party's TV outlet, Al-Manar, reported earlier that "an [IDF] convoy was ambushed in the Shebaa Farms on the border with [Israel]."
"Most of the convoy’s vehicles were destroyed, causing deaths and injuries among the ranks of the [Israeli] army."
The station added that nine vehicles in the convoy had been targeted.
Israeli media outlets reported that the attack left at least four soldiers injured, while contradictory reports circulated among Arabic-language media, with Al-Arabiya reporting a death toll of two.
The NNA’s correspondent
said that Israeli artillery fired a number of shells towards Lebanese territory in the area around the Majidiya farm, Kfar Chouba al-Abbasiyya and the Wazzani River.