Beirut: Israel on Wednesday said eight of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon as troops battle Hezbollah militants on the ground after the start of an Israeli incursion into that country. The region braced for further escalation as Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran's ballistic missile attack a day earlier.
Captain Harel Etinger, 23, Captain Itai Ariel Giat, 23, Staff Sergeant Noam Barzilay, 22, Staff Sergeant Or Mantzur, 21, Staff Sergeant Nazar Itkin, 21, Sergeant Almken Terefe, 21, and Sergeant Ido Broyer, 21, were killed in the southern Lebanon offensive, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in a statement. The losses were the deadliest suffered by the Israeli military on the Lebanon front in the past year of clashes between Israel and its Iran-backed Lebanese adversary.
Earlier, the Israeli military announced its first combat casualty since launching ground operations in Lebanon this week, as 22-year-old Eitan Itzhak Oster was killed in combat in the country. This came as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border.
"The name of an IDF fallen soldier has been released, and the family has been informed: Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, 22 years old, from Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, team commander in the Egoz Unit, Commando Division, fell in battle in southern Lebanon," said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in a statement. The Israeli military said ground forces backed by airstrikes had killed militants in “close-range engagements” without saying where.
Hezbollah engages with Israeli troops as conflict escalates
Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The escalation on multiple fronts has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could further draw in Iran — which backs Hezbollah and Hamas — as well as the United States.
Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border. Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device.
The Lebanese army said Israeli forces had advanced some 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short period,” its first confirmation of the incursion. On the other hand, the Israeli military has warned people in around 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 km from the border. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.
Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a ceasefire in Gaza with Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Iran's missile strike on Israel
Israel's missile defences were activated on Tuesday to repel a salvo of Iranian ballistic missiles in retaliation for Israel's campaign against Tehran's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. Iran used hypersonic Fattah missiles for the first time, and 90 per cent of its missiles successfully hit their targets in Israel, the Revolutionary Guards said.
No injuries were reported in Israel, but one man was killed in the occupied West Bank, authorities there said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran's missile attack on Israel failed and vowed retaliation, at the start of a security meeting in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night. "Iran made a big mistake tonight - and it will pay for it," Netanyahu said. "The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies."
An Israeli security official said that in cooperation with the United States, the Israeli Air Force intercepted many of the missiles, though there were some direct hits damaging buildings and igniting some fires. On Wednesday, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) acknowledged that some of its airbases were hit in the barrage, and some office buildings and maintenance areas were damaged.
(with inputs from agencies)
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