The fighting between Israeli Army and the Shiite militia Hezbollah intensified this Wednesday on the southern border of the Lebanon. Israeli authorities admitted that eight soldiers were killed there, the first casualties of the Jewish state since it launched a ground operation earlier this week to attack positions of the pro-Iran movement.
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For the first time, the Army He already spoke this Wednesday of “close-range clashes” in which he assures that his troops from the Division 98, in cooperation with the Air Forcemanaged to eliminate Islamist militiamen, but without specifying exactly the number. These clashes also occur a day after Iran launched a barrage of 180 ballistic missiles against Israel, further raising tension in the Middle East and raising fears of an open war between the two countries.
“While an Israeli enemy force was trying to surround the city of Yaroun from the direction of Al Harsh, the mujahideen (fighters) of the Islamic resistance surprised it at 2 pm (local time), detonating a special device and killing and wounding all members of the force,” Hezbollah said in a statement. These casualties would also be the first Israeli deaths in Lebanese territory since the 2006 war.
Hezbollah, furthermore, He assured that they repelled the entry of an Israeli “infantry force” into the border town of Oddaisseh and claimed responsibility for four attacks with rockets, missiles or artillery launched against Army positions in different parts of northern Israel.
For his part, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahuassured in a statement that the country is “in the middle of a tough war against the axis of evil in Iran,” and offered his condolences for the death of the soldiers. “God save his blood. May his memory be blessed,” the president said in a video statement released by his office.
Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah – occurring since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year – intensified following the offensive that the Israelis launched in Lebanon in mid-September with the aim of weakening Hezbollah and allowing it to thousands of displaced northern Israelis return home. In recent weeks, the Staff of Israel has dealt hard blows to the leadership of the Lebanese militia, such as the assassination of its general secretary, Hasan Nasrallah, during a bombing in Beirut.
Bombings in Beirut
Parallel to these fighting in southern Lebanon, Israel continued bombing the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Correspondents heard about twenty explosions in that area. “For several days, the neighborhood became a ghost city,” said Mohamad Sheaito, one of the few residents who decided to stay.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health said last night that 46 people were killed and 85 injured by “bombing by the Israeli enemy” in the last 24 hours in several regions of the country.
While the Lebanese Crisis Center had announced before the publication of this daily balance that 1,928 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October 2023.
On the other hand, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported that three people were killed in an Israeli attack in Damascus. Among them is Nasrallah’s son-in-law, according to the OSDH. “Hassan Jafar al Qasir, son-in-law of Hasan Nasrallah, is one of the Lebanese victims of the Israeli attack on an apartment in a residential building in the Mazé neighborhood of Damascus.”
As things stand, in Lebanon people continue to leave for Syrian territory. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) assured that around 128,000 people have crossed into Syria from Lebanon since the beginning of the Israeli campaign.
The agency’s Syria office estimates that of the 128,000, 70 percent are Syrian, while the rest are Lebanese, according to a report in which it points out that many of them have gone to the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing, in eastern Lebanon.
On another front, the Israeli Army also announced that it bombed three schools in the Gaza Strip, which were used by Hamas as command centers, according to the military. Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since the Palestinian Islamist movement launched an unprecedented attack on its territory on October 7, 2023, which left 1,205 dead, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures. So far, the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has left more than 41,689 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Ministry of Health of the Hamas-ruled territory.
On the other hand, Hamas claimed responsibility for an attack with an automatic rifle and a knife in which seven people died the day before in Tel Aviv.
For now, international efforts to prevent a further escalation continued to multiply, but so far without achieving a concrete result.
Meanwhile, the G7, made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, affirmed that “a diplomatic solution is still possible” in the Middle East, while expectations grow about how and when the Israeli response to the attacks will be. Tuesday’s Iranians.
*With AFP and Efe
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