MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A drone attack launched by Hezbollah on an Israeli army training base killed four Israeli soldiers, and injured several more.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's one of the more serious acts of retaliation after Israel's attacks on the armed group, which is based in Lebanon. Now the Pentagon says it's sending an advanced antimissile system to Israel, along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it, all to help bolster the country's defenses against Iran.
MARTIN: NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has been following these developments, and she's with us now from Tel Aviv. Good morning, Jackie.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: Morning, Michel.
MARTIN: First of all, just tell us what we know about this drone attack.
NORTHAM: Well, as you said, it was against an army base in a place called Binyamina in central Israel, about 40 miles from the Lebanon border. And it's one of the deadliest Hezbollah attacks in this past year. Israel's military said the drone hit the roof of a dining hall full of soldiers and that, in fact, there were two drones launched. One was shot down, but this one hit the base. And the military is looking into why the drone wasn't intercepted and why no warning sirens were activated, as is usually the case. Hezbollah said the attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Beirut last week, which killed more than 20 people. And, you know, Israel's been pushing deeper into Southern Lebanon and Beirut, killing militants and destroying their arsenal. But as this attack shows, Iranian-backed Hezbollah still has firepower to reach Israel. And Michel, of course, the war in Gaza continues. And just this morning, an Israeli strike targeted a large hospital there, killing four people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. And then there was another deadly Israeli strike that hit a Gaza school.
MARTIN: So the Pentagon announced Sunday that it is sending a missile defense system to Israel to help with its defense. What can you tell us about this?
NORTHAM: It's an advanced mobile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery. It's usually referred to simply as THAAD, and it's designed to shoot down ballistic missiles. As you mentioned earlier, it'll be operated by U.S. troops. And this is the first time since the war in Gaza started just over a year ago that the US has sent a significant number of troops to Israel, which means greater involvement by the U.S. in defending Israel. But it also means there are concerns about the conflict broadening throughout this region.
MARTIN: And as this fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies, there are also U.N. peacekeepers getting caught up in the conflict. At least four soldiers have been wounded in the past few days in Lebanon. Has the U.N. said anything about that?
NORTHAM: Yeah. There's this growing rift between Israel and the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. It's known as UNIFIL, and it's an international force. It's been there since 1978, and it helped secure the Lebanon-Israel border. But yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct appeal to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to evacuate UNIFIL troops from Southern Lebanon, claiming that Hezbollah is using peacekeepers as human shields. Guterres doesn't have the authority to do that, by the way. But later in the day, UNIFIL said two Israeli tanks forcibly entered one of its posts, and some shells were exploded and released smoke that sickened some peacekeepers. The Israeli military disputes that version of events, saying Hezbollah fired antitank missiles and, you know, the tanks - the Israeli tanks - were just trying to get their troops out of the area. It's hard to say how this situation, you know, between UNIFIL and Israel is going to play out, as Israel continues its increasingly aggressive campaign into Lebanon, you know, to root out Hezbollah militants.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Jackie Northam. Jackie, thank you.
NORTHAM: Thanks very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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