Adedokun Waliyu 
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon.
The group said it launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the military headquarters in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site. An Israeli army spokesperson said there had been no damage or casualties.
A few hours before the Hezbollah attack, an Israeli drone strike hit a car in southern Lebanon, killing three people inside it, security officials in the area and the state news agency said. Sources did not immediately identify those killed.
Hezbollah cited the killing of the senior Hezbollah figure Wissam al-Tawil on Monday and the deputy chief of Hamas’ political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri last week, in its statement about the strike.
The latest violence comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken tours the Middle East in an attempt to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from spreading regionally.
Israeli media reports and video footage posted on social media confirmed that at least one drone had landed inside the area of the base. Hezbollah announced that several had been launched.
The drone appeared to have landed in an open area of the base close to a car park, with smoke for the detonation visible in some footage.
The strike was the second to hit a significant Israeli military location in recent days, after an attack on the Mount Meron airbase on Saturday, which caused significant damage.
A sharp escalation of violence between Israel and Hezbollah is fuelling fears that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is in danger of spreading across the region.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire almost daily for the past three months across the border, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee homes on both sides. More than 130 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Lebanon during the hostilities with Israel, their worst confrontation since they went to war in 2006.
Tawil, who was responsible for directing Hezbollah’s operations in southern Lebanon, was the most senior member of the group to have been killed in the current violence.
In the immediate aftermath of his killing, Hezbollah circulated pictures of Tawil meeting the group’s secretary general.
