Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Sunday (November 24, 2024) it fired dozens of missiles and drones at Israel, as the Lebanese Army announced it lost a soldier in an Israeli attack in the south.

The Iran-backed militant group said in a statement that it had “launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of strike drones on the Ashdod naval base” in southern Israel.

In a separate statement, it said it had also carried out an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using “a barrage of advanced missiles and a swarm of strike drones”.

The Israeli military did not comment on the attack claims when contacted by AFP.

But it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several locations in central and northern Israel, including in the greater Tel Aviv suburbs.

The military said it intercepted a number of the around 55 projectiles fired at northern Israel.

In southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Army said an Israeli strike on a post killed a soldier.

“One soldier was martyred, and 18 others were injured, including some with severe wounds, as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a Lebanese Army centre in Amriyeh,” the Army said in a statement.

After nearly a year of limited cross-border exchanges of fire, in which Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Hamas, Israel escalated air strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on September 23.

A week later it sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.

Israel says it wants to eliminate Hezbollah and Hamas, which it has been at war with in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.