Hezbollah drone attack sends thousands to shelters in northern Israel
Air-raid sirens blared across the Western Galilee on Monday morning, sending thousands of civilians scrambling for bomb shelters as Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it fired an interceptor missile towards a “target that was launched from Lebanon” but said it subsequently lost contact with the UAV.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers inside Southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, April 23, 2026 (Photo: Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
“No injuries were reported,” the military stated, adding that additional missile alerts in the north were activated “due to concerns of falling interception debris”.
Later on Monday, Hezbollah launched two explosive UAVs towards IDF troops operating in Southern Lebanon, the military said.
One drone hit adjacent to a group of soldiers, the IDF said. No injuries were reported in the incident. A second drone was intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.
“These incidents constitute a violation of the ceasefire understandings by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation,” stated the IDF.
On Sunday, an IDF soldier was killed and six others were wounded by a Hezbollah drone strike in Southern Lebanon. The fallen soldier was identified as Sgt. Idan Fooks, 19, of the 7th Armoured Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Petach Tikvah.
Fooks was the third Israeli soldier to be killed in Southern Lebanon since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire came into effect on April 17 and the first to be killed in a direct Hezbollah attack during the truce, according to the IDF.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused Hezbollah of “essentially disintegrating the ceasefire” through its incessant attacks.
“Therefore, as far as we are concerned, what obligates us is the security of Israel, the security of our soldiers, and the security of our communities,” the premier said. “We are acting vigorously according to the rules we agreed upon with the United States, and incidentally, with Lebanon as well.”
The IDF will maintain its freedom “not only to respond to attacks, which is obvious, but to thwart immediate threats and also to neutralize emerging threats,” he added.
The prime minister, in an overnight letter to his Cabinet on Sunday, ordered the cancellation of traditional Lag B’Omer celebrations on Mount Meron in the Upper Galilee, scheduled for May 4–5, due to the Hezbollah threat.
Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs noted in the missive that “following several security assessments on the matter, and in light of the [IDF] Home Front Command’s updated defensive policy, limiting gatherings to up to 1,500 people, the celebrations of the hilula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai at Meron will not take place this year with large participation, but rather in a symbolic format only, in accordance with the defensive policy, which is not expected to change by the time of the hilula.”
The letter cited fears of a mass-casualty event “due to the fragility of the ceasefire with Lebanon, the site’s proximity to the Lebanese border, rocket fire toward the area and the difficulty of conducting large-scale evacuations of participants.”
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones at Israel on March 2, in retaliation for the Jewish state’s targeted killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was eliminated in the opening strikes of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury” against the Islamic regime on Feb. 28.
In response to the terrorist organization’s violation of the U.S.-brokered Nov. 27, 2024, truce agreement, Jerusalem launched an aerial campaign against Hezbollah and ordered IDF troops to advance and take control of additional areas in Southern Lebanon to halt cross-border attacks.
Jerusalem and Beirut on April 16 agreed to a 10-day ceasefire following mediation by U.S. President Donald Trump. Last week, the two countries agreed to extend the ceasefire for three more weeks following historic direct talks in Washington, D.C.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, in a written statement on Monday reiterated his rejection of the negotiations with Israel, denouncing them as a “grave sin” that was “putting Lebanon in a spiral of instability”.
“These direct negotiations and their outcomes are as if they do not exist for us, and they do not concern us in the slightest,” the top terrorist declared.
“No matter how much the enemy threatens, we will not back down, we will not bow down, and we will not be defeated,” vowed Qassem.
IDF ground troops deployed south of the ceasefire line in Southern Lebanon over the past days dismantled more than 50 terrorist infrastructures, including a Hezbollah tunnel used to carry out attacks against Israel, the military stated on Monday morning.
During a “targeted raid” near the village of Aadshit al-Qusayr, located some 2 miles north of the border with Israel, troops found an arms storage facility inside a children’s bedroom, it said. The weapons cache contained explosives, Kalashnikov rifles, grenades, RPGs, machine guns, munitions and other “combat equipment”, according to the IDF.
“The Hezbollah terrorist organisation cynically exploits the civilian population in Lebanon in order to execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” it noted.
On Sunday, ground troops ordered an Israeli Air Force strike on three terrorists who approached them during operations south of the truce line, “posing an imminent threat”, the IDF said in a separate statement on Monday.
The IAF “struck and eliminated the terrorists in order to remove the threat”, it stated.
In addition, several Hezbollah “military” structures were hit, including the headquarters of the terror group’s Bint Jbeil sector and other structures. “Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons stored in the area,” the IDF added.
