Mikel Ayestaran
Special correspondent. Beirut
Wednesday, October 2, 2024, 9:16 p.m.
While the Middle East awaits Israel’s response to the launch of 181 missiles by Iran, the Lebanese front entered a new phase this Wednesday with the first eight Israeli soldiers killed in a Hezbollah ambush. Twenty-four hours after announcing the start of the “limited ground operation”, the elite commandos entered Lebanese soil through Odeissa and were surprised there by the militiamen. The harsh bombing of this area in recent days to try to clear the way for the troops did not achieve their objective and Israel had to retreat to evacuate its dead and wounded in a complicated maneuver under enemy fire.
Six of the victims belonged to the elite Egoz unit and fell during a shootout inside a building in a village in southern Lebanese. Another sergeant and four soldiers were wounded. All of them had to retreat amidst mortar fire from the militia in a difficult evacuation where there were more injuries. The two remaining deceased, members of the Golani reconnaissance brigade, lost their lives in another armed confrontation.
The army tried to penetrate at different points and violent fighting was also recorded in Maroun al-Ras, where Hezbollah claimed that it destroyed three tanks. The militants also reported that they detonated several booby traps in front of the Israelis in Yaroun. According to the Defense Forces, the units killed at least thirty militiamen during the day.
Despite the blows that Israeli Intelligence has dealt to Hezbollah in recent weeks and the beheading of its entire command leadership, Hasan Nasrallah included, the pro-Iranian militia demonstrated in the first day of hand-to-hand combat that it maintains the capacity to do harm. to an enemy infinitely superior in terms of military power. The missiles and rockets that the Party of God launches every day are usually intercepted and it is in the confrontation on the ground that some militiamen who have been preparing since 2006 for a moment like this can stand up.
Safe return
Israel’s response was the mobilization of the army’s 36th Division. On Tuesday night he showed photos of his experienced soldiers inside Lebanese territory. The military’s goal is to establish a security zone along the border that will allow the safe return to their homes of the more than 60,000 Israelis who have been forced to flee due to daily harassment by Hezbollah. In the last few hours, the organization fired almost two hundred rockets against the Jewish State, whose artillery responded with 450 missiles.
The fronts multiply at the table of Benjamin Netanyahu who congratulated the Jewish New Year to the citizens saying that “the year of victory begins.” Waiting for the “tough response” promised against Iran, the Israelis viciously bombed Gaza, where they killed dozens of people in two UN shelter schools, tried to advance on land in Lebanon and bombed different targets in Syria, one of them in Mezze, a neighborhood of Damascus where there are numerous embassies.
On the eve of the first anniversary of the brutal Hamas attacks on October 7, Netanyahu steps on the accelerator and targets the Islamic Republic, a country he sees behind all the security problems that affect the Jewish State. The prime minister met with the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and the head of the army, Herzi Halevi, to analyze the new situation generated by the Iranian attack. The army carried out a new damage assessment and acknowledged that “several missiles fell inside Israeli air force bases. No infrastructure or offensive capabilities were damaged. “No casualties or damage to the planes were reported.”
Unlike what happened in April, when the ayatollah regime launched 350 missiles and drones, on this occasion several projectiles managed to overcome the defense measures deployed by Tel Aviv, which had the help of the US and the United Kingdom.
The streets of Tehran dawned with signs that read ‘We are prepared’, alluding to Netanyahu’s threats about the blow that awaits the Islamic republic for having launched the missiles. «Our action has ended unless the Israeli regime decides to continue. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful,” warned Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.
Throughout the day there was speculation about the possible targets that Israel could attack and the most notable were nuclear plants and oil and gas facilities, key to the battered national economy. Intelligence sources indicated that “the objective will cause economic damage.” Portals such as Axios indicated that the possibility of carrying out selective assassinations and operations against air defense is also among the options considered.
Joe Biden put a stop to this debate and warned the prime minister that the United States will not support any attack against Iran’s nuclear program. The president acknowledged that both he and the other members of the G7 agree that Israel has the “right to respond” to Tuesday’s aggression, but “it must respond proportionally.”
Tehran will be the scene this Wednesday during the main prayer of the University of an act of tribute to Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah assassinated by the Israeli army, and the prayer will be led by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, something unusual. Khamenei is the one who has the last word in the country’s key decisions, such as Tuesday’s attack against the Jewish State.
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