The Israeli military said at least eight soldiers were killed in fighting in Lebanon, and Hezbollah said its fighters engaged Israeli forces that had crossed the border into southern Lebanon.
After announcing the death of one soldier in Lebanon earlier in the day, the country’s military said in a statement on Wednesday that “the (Israeli army) has announced the death of seven more soldiers.”
Military officials said the soldiers were killed in two separate incidents.
The statement came as Hezbollah said Wednesday that its fighters were engaging Israeli forces inside Lebanon, reporting the first ground clashes since Israel began its ground advance earlier this week. .
A Lebanese militant group said its fighters detonated an explosive device inside the building and targeted it with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades after observing Israeli soldiers sheltering in a house on the outskirts of the Lebanese village of Kfar Qira. did.
Hezbollah did not specify the number of casualties, but said all of its troops were killed or wounded. There was no immediate statement from Israel.
In a statement early Wednesday, it said Israeli soldiers detonated explosives as they tried to bypass the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, injuring others.
The Iran-aligned group also mentioned the area where it had reported clashes with Israeli forces earlier in the day, saying: “Rockets destroyed three Merkava tanks advancing towards the village of Maroun al-Ras. I did,” he said.
Al Jazeera could not independently confirm Hezbollah or the Israeli military’s claims.
“Strategic victory”?
“These are two very serious incidents and Hezbollah is now very confident because they succeeded in pushing back the Israelis,” Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan said in a report from Hasbaiyah in southeastern Lebanon. said.
“They see this as a strategic victory.”
The Israeli military also said ground forces supported by airstrikes killed a Hezbollah fighter in a “close-range engagement”, without specifying where. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
It also said regular infantry and armored units were participating in ground operations in Lebanon.
The Lebanese army said Israeli forces advanced about 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short period of time,” the first confirmation of an invasion.
Israeli forces have targeted people in about 50 villages and towns north of the Awari River, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border and far beyond the northern edge of the U.N.-declared area that serves as a buffer zone from the border. warned to evacuate. Israel and Hezbollah after the 2006 war.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, said the number of people displaced by Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which escalated dramatically last week, has increased to 1.2 million. More than 1,000 people have died so far, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
At least 13 people were killed in attacks on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, Lebanon’s state news agency said on Wednesday. The airstrike also targeted the Choeifat district in southern Beirut, the newspaper said.
Al Jazeera’s Khan said one of the main roads used by displaced residents in southern Lebanon was bombed again today.
“Many people have been evacuated from these areas and are doing so in fear and panic,” Khan said, noting that roads have come under repeated attacks in recent days.
“This is one of the only ways to get out of southern Lebanon under evacuation orders, and Israel bombs southern Lebanon not just once, but twice, not even three times in 48 hours,” he said. Ta.
Israel has said it will continue attacking Hezbollah until tens of thousands of people can safely return to their homes in towns and villages near the Lebanese border. Hezbollah has vowed to continue firing rockets at Israel until a ceasefire is reached in the besieged and shelled Gaza Strip.
US seeks sanctions on Iran
The escalation in fighting in Lebanon comes as Israel has promised to respond after Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at key Israeli military and security targets. Iran says the strikes were carried out in response to attacks on Gaza and Lebanon and the killing of key leaders of Hezbollah and the Palestinian organization Hamas.
“We will respond. We can find important targets and attack them with precision and force,” Chief of Staff Helj Halevi said in a video statement.
“We have the ability to reach and strike anywhere in the Middle East, and any adversary who doesn’t yet understand this will soon understand.”
Meanwhile, the United States also warned Iran at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council not to target it or Israel, amid growing concerns of a broader war in the region.
“Our actions were defensive in nature,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council.
“Let me be clear: the Iranian regime will be held accountable for its actions, and we will not allow Iran, or its proxies, to take any further action against the United States or against Israel. I strongly warn against this.”
French Ambassador to the United Nations Nicolas de Rivière said France wanted the Security Council to “show unity and speak with one voice” to de-escalate the situation. Thomas-Greenfield said the council should condemn Iran’s attack and impose “serious consequences” for the actions of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
“As members of the Security Council, we have a collective responsibility to impose additional sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards for their support of terrorism and disregard for many Security Council resolutions,” the US ambassador said.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Council that he strongly condemned Iran’s attack on Israel. Guterres said “the deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence must be stopped” in the Middle East. “Time is running out,” he told the 15-member council.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel declared Guterres “persona non grata” for not specifically condemning Iranian missile attacks when he condemned “the escalation of conflict in the Middle East” on Tuesday.
“Those who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel have no right to set foot on Israeli soil,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
In a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday, Iran justified its attack on Israel in self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, citing “acts of aggression” by Israel, including violations of Iranian sovereignty.
“Iran… fully abides by the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law and targets only military and security facilities of the regime with defensive missile attacks,” Iran said in a letter to the Security Council.
At a joint press conference with the emir of Qatar in Doha, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said if Israel wanted to respond, “we will take a stronger response.”
“We do not want war. It is Israel that is forcing us to react,” he insisted.
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon on Wednesday rejected Iran’s claim of self-defense.
“It was a calculated attack on civilians,” he told reporters before the board meeting. “Israel cannot stand by and watch such an invasion. Israel will respond. Our response will be decisive and certainly painful, but unlike Iran, , we will act in full accordance with international law.”