What’s happened: Four IDF soldiers were killed last night by a Hezbollah drone that exploded in a military  training base near Binyamina. 

• The drone struck approximately 60km from the Lebanese border.
• There was no siren, the drone directly struck the dining room, penetrating the roof and exploded during dinnertime. 
• Fifty-eight soldiers were wounded in the attack. Seven are in serious condition, nine are in moderate condition and the others are all in light condition. 
• According to the IDF’s preliminary inquiry, two drones were detected over the Mediterranean Sea. One was intercepted near Nahariya, but the second drone was lost for reasons that currently remain unclear.
• In a sperate incident earlier on Sunday, 25 IDF soldiers were hospitalised after being wounded in combat in southern Lebanon. Two were described as seriously wounded, and 23 were moderately or lightly wounded.
• During the evacuation of the injured soldiers an IDF tank backed into a United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFL) post.
• This was the second incident involving UNIFIL in recent days. The IDF admitted that on Friday six UNIFIL soldiers had been wounded by IDF fire, while the “troops were responding to a threat.” The IDF said that hours before the incident it had instructed UNIFIL forces to leave for safe civilian areas and to stay there.

• In that time they have uncovered the substantial military preparedness embedded within Lebanese villages close to the border including thousands of weapons and hundreds of tunnels.
• In parallel Hezbollah have been consistently able to fire around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel on a daily basis.       
• According to Defence Minister Gallant, his latest assessment is that, "only a third of short and medium-range missiles remain in Hezbollah's possession."
• Several of the Hezbollah military outposts have been within close proximity of UNIFIL positions. 
• According to the IDF in the last month there has been approximately 25 rockets and missiles launched by Hezbollah from positions close to UNIFIL.    
• This has led to Prime Minister Netanyahu to release a video appealing directly to the UN Secretary General saying, “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones. The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields. Your refusal to evacuate UNIFIL soldiers has turned them into hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers. We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm. But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone.”
• In addition the IDF has been keen to emphasise that during the incident yesterday all UNIFIL personnel were safe in their shelter and were in constant communication with the IDF.    
• The incident nevertheless drew criticism from Israel’s European allies and was also discussed on the latest call between Defence Minister Gallant and his US counterpart, Secretary of Defence Austin. According to a Department of Defence statement, Austin, “reinforced the importance of Israel taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces, and the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway to provide security for civilians on both sides of the border as soon as feasible.”
• Gallant reportedly promised to continue to take all necessary measures to protect the peacekeeping force stationed in southern Lebanon, despite the operational challenge as a result of Hezbollah’s presence near UNIFIL positions.
• The bitter irony is that UNIFIL was deployed in southern Lebanon as part of UN resolution 1701 to prevent the presence of armed Hezbollah fighters operating close to the Israeli border.
• Israel does not yet have a holistic solution to the Iranian made drones deployed by Hezbollah. However, it is still estimated that more than half of the drones have been intercepted by a combination of IAF combat planes, or by the Iron Dome and David’s Sling systems.
• The drones are small and hard to detect, plus they are capable of frequently changing altitude.
• Israel’s ability to intercept rockets is far higher (over 90 per cent) but still could be overwhelmed by massive simultaneous barrages.

• In an effort to help defend Israel from future Iranian attack, the Pentagon has confirmed that a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery will soon be deployed in Israel, controlled by US military personnel.
• According to the Pentagon spokesperson, “The THAAD Battery will augment Israel's integrated air defence system. This action underscores the United States' ironclad commitment to the defence of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran. It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defence of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias.” 
• Israel has developed a laser based interception system that will help combat the threat of drones, but it is only expected to be operational by the summer 2025