Israel Investigates Death of Hezbollah Fighter Claimed to Be Captured

The Israeli occupation army announced it is investigating the death of a Hezbollah member who was allegedly held captive by Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory.

According to a report by the Israeli website “Walla!” on Saturday, “To our knowledge, this is the first investigation initiated by the Israeli army over an incident that occurred on Lebanese soil. Previously, investigations mainly focused on events during the Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip.”

The website claimed that “since the beginning of the ground maneuvers in Lebanon, the Israeli army has managed to capture several Hezbollah operatives. The first to be apprehended was Wadih Younis, who was found by soldiers in an underground tunnel inside a building leading to the area where the operatives were operating. He surrendered and was subsequently detained.”

The report added that “the prisoner was initially interrogated on the ground and then transferred for further investigation by Unit 504 interrogators at one of Israel’s prisons.”

On Saturday, Hezbollah announced it had targeted 14 gatherings of soldiers in northern occupied territories and near the border with Lebanon using rockets and artillery. The group also launched additional rocket attacks on settlements, cities, and military targets, with one of the main strikes being on a military base east of Haifa. This raised the number of attacks to 21.

In a series of statements on the Telegram platform, Hezbollah stated it had launched rocket salvos at 13 gatherings of Israeli soldiers in settlements including Shlomi, Al-Malikiyah, Al-Bassa, Zar’it (twice), Avivim, Beit Hillel barracks, and the Al-Malikiyah and Marj military sites (twice). They also targeted areas around Jal Al-Deir, northeast of Avivim, and near the town of Aita Al-Shaab, southern Lebanon.

The group further added that it had fired artillery shells at “another gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Fatima Gate in the town of Kfar Kila,” in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah also claimed to have targeted a “military base in the Nasher area, east of Haifa, the Kiryat settlement north of Haifa, Safed city (twice), Rosh Pina settlement, southeast of the same city, and Kiryat Shmona settlement.”

Additionally, they claimed responsibility for hitting a “Merkava tank in the Zar’it settlement with a guided missile, causing it to catch fire and leaving its crew dead or wounded,” as well as targeting an “Israeli artillery position in the Dishon settlement with a rocket salvo.”

On the Israeli side, the army reported a drone attack from Lebanon targeting the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the city of Caesarea, northern Israel. Netanyahu and his family were not present at the time.

While no Lebanese group has yet claimed responsibility for this attack, Israel’s private Channel 12 reported that a preliminary army investigation revealed the drone used in the attack on Netanyahu’s residence was a “Hunter 107,” known for its difficulty to detect and intercept.

The investigation noted that this type of drone was similar to the one that recently targeted a Golani Brigade training base near Binyamina, south of Haifa, a few days ago.