At least 20 injured in northern Israel explosion

A blast caused by unexploded ordnance in northern Israel near the Lebanese border has injured approximately 20 people in Israel.

Israel’s Magen David Adom said paramedics were treating “eight casualties in serious and moderate condition, as well as several additional casualties in mild condition” following the explosion on Monday morning, which police said occurred near the community of Neot Mordechai, between Kibbutz Manara and Kibbutz Yiftach.

Police officers from the Kiryat Shmona station (Northern District) are on-site, securing and cordoning off the area, while bomb disposal experts investigate the circumstances and source of the explosion.

The preliminary indications suggest the blast was caused by unexploded ordnance, resulting in injuries of varying severity to approximately 20 people.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank said, the explosion happened around several Israelis who were on a picnic or a hike in the area, on the border with Lebanon, adding that some of the injured are described to be in critical condition.

“There is very little specific information as to what happened, what the source of that explosion was, but it’s certainly a reminder that Northern Israel, the upper Galilee and particularly the border with Lebanon remains an area where there is a military operation, with the Israeli military deployed and where thousands of munitions were used over the past 3 years”, Odeh said.

Odeh said the explosion had “mobilised” Israel’s political echelons, with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu heading to the area, and the Israeli minister of National Security National Ben Gvir canceling a political engagement that was on his agenda.