Hezbollah says it launched drones at military base west of Israel’s Tiberias

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BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack at a military base west of Israel’s Tiberias on Wednesday, in the deepest strike into Israeli territory since the Lebanese armed group began exchanging fire with Israel in parallel with the Gaza war.

Hezbollah said it was targeting part of a surveillance system used by the Israeli air force, and that the swarm of attack drones “hit its limited targets accurately and accomplished what it wanted in this limited operation.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The attack came a day after an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah field commander, Hussein Mekki, in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said Mekki was responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians and territory since the start of the Gaza war in October.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday that its drone attack was in response to “assassinations” carried out by Israel, but did not specify that it was in retaliation for Mekki’s killing.

More than 260 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon over the last seven months.

In April, Hezbollah said it had struck Israeli military bases north of the city of Acre with drones, which was at the time the deepest its attacks had reached.

(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Maya GebeilyEditing by Chris Reese, William Maclean)