Two Israelis were killed in a Hezbollah rocket barrage towards the Golan Heights on Tuesday night, medical authorities said.
“At 7:07 p.m., a report was received regarding two casualties as a result of a direct hit in the Golan Heights sector. MDA medics and paramedics report two casualties in critical condition,” the Magen David Adom medical emergency response group announced.
The victims, who were declared dead shortly afterwards, were identified on Wednesday as Noa and Nir Barnes, both aged 46, a couple from Kibbutz Ortal and parents of three children. They were driving home to the kibbutz when their vehicle was struck.
According to initial reports, their vehicle was hit at the Nafah Junction on Route 91, which is located near the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces’ 36th Division.
Following the attack, the Golan Regional Council announced that Route 91 was closed in both directions from the Nafah Junction to the Shiryon Junction due to “impacts in the area.”
The council also advised residents to stay near bomb shelters and avoid public gatherings until further notice “per the army’s instructions.”
The IDF said that “following the alerts that were activated in the north of the country, about 40 launches were detected that crossed [from] the territory of Lebanon into the area of the central Golan Heights.”
The rocket salvo sparked at least eight fires in open areas across the Golan, according to Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster.
In a statement published by Lebanon’s pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar daily, the Iranian proxy group claimed to have targeted the Nafah base in response to the killing of Yasser Nimr Qarnabsh in an Israeli drone strike outside Damascus earlier on Tuesday.
Qranbish was said to have been part of an elite Hezbollah unit responsible for moving terrorists and weaponry from Syria to Lebanon and previously served as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s personal bodyguard.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah released a second aerial reconnaissance video of Israeli sites, this time documenting the Golan Heights.
The video includes “scenes of aerial reconnaissance of intelligence bases, command headquarters, and camps in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, returned by aircraft of the Islamic Resistance Air Force,” the Iranian-backed terror army wrote on its Telegram channel.
Last month, Hezbollah released video footage of Israel’s Haifa Port captured by a surveillance UAV. The port is one of Israel’s most important commercial shipping gateways.
Hezbollah has attacked the Jewish state’s north nearly every day since Oct. 8, firing thousands of drones, rockets and anti-tank missiles at Israeli towns, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage.
Nasrallah has vowed to continue the attacks until a “complete and permanent ceasefire” is reached with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
