US citizen seriously injured in anti-tank missile attack on Western Galilee

An American citizen was seriously injured and another American citizen and an IDF soldier were slightly injured when an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon at a building in Moshav Zar’it in the Western Galilee at noon on Sunday. The injured were taken to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya for medical treatment.

The Israeli military is currently investigating why the American citizens were in the area at the time of the attack. The injured soldier’s family has been notified.

The seriously injured American citizen (31) was treated in the hospital’s emergency room, where medical teams put him in an artificial coma and connected him to a ventilator. He will be transferred to the general intensive care unit. The other American citizen (42) and the soldier (25) were slightly injured and are currently being examined.

Mimi Daniel, a resident of Kfar Zeitim, and her husband were at home when sirens suddenly broke the silence in the sleepy little town. “I was woken up by the sirens and we ran to the security room. After about fifteen minutes we saw shrapnel in the house, broken glass. The young man was injured near us,” she told Ynet, stressing that the damage could have been much worse. “It took us by surprise.”

Her son Hadar showed the Ynet team shrapnel that had penetrated his house and also the living room.

David Daniel, 74, also a resident of Kfar Zeitim, said his house was also damaged in the attack. “The shutters blew off,” he said, noting that his shed was also damaged. He expressed surprise at the unusual rocket fire targeting the town.

Another resident, Daniel Pesach, reported: “At around 10:30 a.m. there was a very loud explosion. I ran to the security room and only after the rocket hit did the siren go off. It is surprising that it hit here. The reason for this is the proximity to the military base nearby. (Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan) Nasrallah knows which bases are here, that’s why he shot at the base – and it is fortunate that only one person was injured.”

Hezbollah claimed it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at bases in the northern region “west of Tiberias” on Sunday morning. The terrorist organization said the shelling was in response to the killing of Meitham Alattar, a senior member of the group’s air defense unit, who was killed in a drone attack on his car in the Baalbek area, about 110 kilometers from the Israeli border. This retaliatory shelling followed an even heavier barrage of over 200 rockets and drones last Thursday in response to the killing of a senior field commander.

The Israeli Defense Forces reported that at least 20 missiles from Lebanon reached the Lower Galilee in the Sunday morning attack, with some successfully intercepted by air defenses. As in previous attacks, rocket strikes caused a number of bush fires. Firefighting teams reported “several hot spots” in fields around Tiberias, including in the Arbel nature reserve, which was closed to visitors because of the fire.

Given Hezbollah’s claim that it was responsible for Sunday’s barrage, it is safe to assume that the terrorist group’s response to Alattar’s elimination is not yet over.

The IDF spokesman reported that the Sunday morning barrage, which ran from Lebanon to the Lower Galilee, recorded about 20 rocket launches, some of which were successfully intercepted by air defense systems. As in previous barrages, falling rockets and shrapnel caused a number of fires, and the fire service reported “several hot spots” in open areas in the Tiberias area, including the Arbel nature reserve, which caught fire and was closed to tourists.

According to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, about 25,866 hectares of land have burned in northern Israel since the beginning of the year. Half of the fires occurred in nature reserves and national parks, the other half in forests and fields.

The fires on Thursday and Friday, which followed the large barrage from Lebanon, destroyed about 12,000 hectares of land – about 12% of the total fires in northern Israel this year. The Golan Heights region is the most affected, with about 5,000 hectares burned, followed by the Upper Galilee with about 4,200 hectares. Nationwide, about 19,500 hectares of land have burned since the beginning of the year.

In response to the barrage and after identifying the source of the rocket fire, the Israeli Air Force carried out an attack on the Hezbollah military structure from which the anti-tank missile had been fired. In addition, the Israeli Air Force attacked a military structure in the Maaroub area and a terrorist infrastructure in the Naqoura area. In addition, the Israeli Air Force launched a wave of attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The first target was attacked in the town of Marwahin, north of Tyre, about 20 kilometers from Metula. The Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese network Al Mayadeen also reported an attack in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta ash-Shab.