A preliminary military investigation following the Hezbollah attack on Israeli military jeeps near the border with Lebanon on Wednesday revealed that terrorists with the Lebanese Shi’ite group launched anti-tank missiles from a distance of at least four kilometers.
The military vehicles travelled on a civilian road in the village of Ghajar two kilometers away from the border when they came under a heavy Hezbollah ambush, consisting of five to six Kornet missiles, a senior army source said. He estimated that the attackers were four to five kilometers away from the vehicles.
A military D-max vehicle was the first vehicle hit in the attack, prompting all of those inside an IDF jeep behind it to quickly evacuate the vehicle before it too was hit with missiles. The subsequent injuries came from military vehicles nearby.
The source stressed that the vehicles travelled on a road used jointly by military and civilian traffic, and that civilian cars were also in the vicinity of the attack. One house in the village was also struck by a missile in the attack.
"It's too soon to draw conclusions about whether the vehicles should have been armored," the source said. "We will investigate the incident."
Two IDF soldiers were killed and seven were injured in the attack.
The IDF used artillery guns and tanks to fire at Hezbollah targets near the Lebanese border in the minutes following in the incident. One Spanish UN peacekeeper was killed in the Israeli return fire, and Israel has apologized for the incident, the source said. "We regret the incident and are in touch with the United Nations," he added.
"We are continuing to manage this, and remain on very high alert," said the officer.