60 Israeli attacks on Lebanon. And 9 dead in one day
Late on Wednesday evening, the Israeli army announced that 7 military personnel, including two officers, were injured in a drone explosion in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army said in a statement that "a female soldier was seriously wounded, and a field officer and two other soldiers were moderately injured as a result of the crash of a booby-trapped drone in southern Lebanon."
Another field officer and two soldiers were lightly injured in the incident, he said, adding that the injured were taken to the hospital to receive the necessary treatment.
Earlier on Wednesday, the army announced that three military personnel, including two officers, one of them a brigade commander, were injured in a drone crash in southern Lebanon.
The Israel Broadcasting Corporation said that the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, Colonel Meir Biederman, was among those wounded in the attack, noting that his condition was serious.
60 Israeli attacks on Lebanon. And 9 dead in one day
Israel killed 9 people and wounded 9 others on Wednesday in 60 attacks and evacuation notices on Lebanon, in new violations of the fragile ceasefire agreement announced since April 17.
The Bint Jbeil district witnessed the largest percentage of strikes, with the towns of Kafra, Tibnin, Chakra, Deir Antar, Aita al-Jabal, Haris, Al-Sultaniya, Yater, Ghandouriya and Khirbet Salam being subjected to a series of intensive raids, the most violent of which was near the government hospital in Tibnin, where two people were killed and another was wounded.
The shelling extended to the district of Tyre, where Israeli planes targeted areas between Burj Rahal and Abbasiya, in addition to the towns of Siddiqin, Mahrouna, Shahhour, Qasimiya, Goya, Rashkaniya, Burj Al-Shamali, Jabal al-Batm and Tora, which led to one death and a number of wounded.
In the Nabatieh district, the strikes affected the towns of Jibshit, Dweir and Haboush, with the deadliest strike being in the al-Baraka neighbourhood of al-Dweir, where the shelling killed five people and wounded two others.
Two raids targeted the outskirts of the town of Shab'a in the district of Hasbaya, killing one person and wounding another, while the town of Majdal Salam in the district of Marjayoun was subjected to an additional raid and in the area of Al-Assi between Kafra and Siddiqin, an aerial bombardment wounded two people to varying degrees.
The attacks were not limited to airstrikes, as they were accompanied by intensive artillery shelling on several towns in the districts of Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh, Marjayoun, Tyre, Sidon and the western Bekaa, which caused a state of panic among the population.
Israeli forces carried out two bombing operations in Hadatha and Rashaf, targeting houses on the outskirts of the two towns, in conjunction with the issuance of evacuation warnings in the towns of Haboush and Deir al-Zahrani, in an indication of the possibility of expanding military operations.
Israel allocates $700 million to counter drones
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the allocation of about $700 million to provide solutions to Hezbollah's drones, during an urgent consultation session with senior leaders of the security establishment, on Wednesday, May 14, to discuss ways to confront the growing threat of drones and the escalating human casualties in the ranks of the Israeli army.
According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper, Netanyahu decided at the emergency meeting to allocate an immediate budget of 2 billion shekels ($687.7 million) with the aim of developing advanced technological solutions, noting that the drones "changed the face of the battle over the past month" in southern Lebanon.
The channel revealed that the Israeli plan includes the deployment of fixed radars along the northern border, in addition to the development of two new defense systems to protect the fighting forces directly.
One of the two systems is intended for mobile forces, it said, and operates on a similar principle to the "wind coat" (trophy) system, which is used to protect tanks and armored vehicles from anti-armor missiles, by detecting and destroying threats before hitting the target.
The second system includes "small and sophisticated" mobile radars intended for infantry forces, with the aim of warning soldiers of any imminent threat in real time, allowing them to take defensive measures or take cover quickly, according to the Israeli channel.
The channel pointed out that the Israeli army will buy 5 million bullets for "shotguns" rifles, which contain small metal pellets that are scattered in the air to intercept short-range drones.