Drone strike in Israel wounds almost 40 as Hezbollah is blamed

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina on Sunday, three of them critically.

The Hezbollah militant group was blamed for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war.

Israel's advanced air-defence systems mean that it's rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and Israel's military said one was intercepted.

It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military or civilians, or what was hit.

It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.

The strike came on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defence system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missiles.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both Iran-backed militant groups, and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.

A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. One strike late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing the parents and their six children, ages 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies there.

"They were safe, while he was sleeping, and he and all his children died," said the man's brother, Mohammad Abu Ghali. Women stroked the body bags, in tears.

Israel's military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.

International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon. The military says Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.

The peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one of its positions early Sunday and destroyed the main gate, and later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers in that location, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL said the incident was a "further flagrant violation of international law."

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