Two soldiers were killed Wednesday when an Israeli army patrol came under anti-tank fire from Hezbollah operatives in the northern Mount Dov region near the border with Lebanon.
The IDF confirmed that at least seven soldiers were wounded in the attack and ruled out the possibility that a soldier had been kidnapped.
The two soldiers were identified later as company commander Captain Yochai Kalengel, 25, from Har Gilo and Sgt. Dor Nini, 20, from Shtulim.
Their vehicle was hit by the first of five Kornet guided anti-tank missiles fired at an IDF convoy near Ghajar, on a civilian road near the border. Other soldiers in the convoy evacuated their vehicles when the first missile struck, preventing further loss of life. The missiles were said to have been fired from a distance of some 4.5 kilometers.
“Earlier today, an anti-tank missile hit an IDF vehicle in the Har-Dov area, killing two soldiers and wounding an additional seven, two of them moderately,” said the IDF in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “The soldiers’ families have been notified.”
Photos that emerged after the attack showed two badly damaged vehicles in flames. The IDF vehicles were unarmored.
Five more soldiers were lightly hurt. Dr. Hani Bahus, head of the trauma unit at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, said two wounded soldiers who arrived with shrapnel injuries to their abdomens and chests are “fully conscious and do not require surgery,” Ynet reported.
For over an hour after the attack, IDF positions in the area, as well as on nearby Mount Hermon, were hit with mortar shells.
Israel responded to the attack with artillery strikes in southern Lebanon. Two Lebanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel targeted the border villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba with at least 50 shells.
Hezbollah said in a statement that a squad from the “fallen martyrs of the Quneitra brigade” had attacked the Israeli convoy in retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike near Quneitra, just over the border in Syria, last week that killed at least seven, including an Iranian general and a senior commander in the organization. The statement said it was a “first announcement,” alluding to the possibility of further attacks.
The attack was praised by Iran and by Hamas.
The attack, launched from an area controlled by Hezbollah, comes after repeated threats by the group, which said it would retaliate against Israel for an airstrike earlier in January that killed its top commander in the Syrian Golan Heights, along with an Iranian general and 10 others.
Israeli soldiers came under attack in the northern Har Dov area near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday morning. Two were killed and 7 injured when their army vehicle was targeted by anti-tank missiles. At the same time, IDF positions in the area were hit with mortar shells. Israel responded to the attack with multiple artillery strikes in southern Lebanon. The Times of Israel liveblogged events as they unfolded.
The residents of the northern village of Ghajar say a house is on fire after it was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, Ynet reports.
Hezbollah claims responsibility for the attack in northern Israel today, in which an IDF vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile.
Security officials hint that the attack along Israel’s northern border is “one of the most severe” attacks of its kind.
The attack was reportedly a kidnapping attempt by Hezbollah.
The Haifa and Rosh Pina airports have been shut down due to fear that they may be targeted by projectiles fired from Lebanon, Ynet reports.
Meanwhile, Arab media sources quote Israeli officials as saying Hezbollah tried to kidnap soldiers but failed.
Billionaire Bill Gates called for “a kind of global government” this week, arguing that the creation of such a system would be needed to combat major issues such as “climate change.”
Speaking with Germany’s “Süddeutsche Zeitung” newspaper Tuesday, Gates decried the fact that a proper United Nations system has failed to materialize as planned.
“You can make fun of it, but in truth it was sad how the conference in Copenhagen is run, how individual who behave like the UN system failed,” Gates said according to an English translation in the Huffington Post.
Gates went on to stress his position further, stating that a global government was “badly needed” in order to combat an array of issues ailing the planet.
“Take the UN, it has been created especially for the security in the world. We are ready for war, because we have taken every precaution. We have NATO, we have divisions, jeeps, trained people,” Gates said. “But what is with epidemics? How many doctors do we have as much planes, tents, what scientists? If there were such a thing as a world government, we would be better prepared.”
The billionaire made headlines last week after introducing a plan to implement a cashless system in multiple third-world countries, a program that would undoubtedly give financial elites total control over monetary systems.
A magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck 25 miles southwest of Ferndale, Humboldt County on Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The quake was reported 40 miles southwest of Eureka. According to USGS, the quake took place at 1:08 p.m.
The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) tweeted that "a room full of Public Safety Officials felt the 5.7 earthquake that shook Humboldt County a few minutes ago."
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