Hezbollah says Israeli soldiers killed, tanks destroyed in Lebanon border town

Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement says its fighters have engaged in a close-quarters firefight with Israeli soldiers in the town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon.

In a statement released on Thursday, Hezbollah said its fighters were engaged in “heavy clashes in Aita al-Shaab” at close range. The resistance fighters also hit a Merkava tank that came to assist the Israeli troops. It reported a separate hit on a Merkava tank using a guided missile.

The Israeli military said four of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon and six others injured, three of them in serious condition. It provided the names of the four soldiers in a statement, saying they "fell during combat in southern Lebanon" on Wednesday. 

A source close to Hezbollah said a village came under some of the heaviest Israeli fire in a year of confrontations and also denied Israeli troops had managed to establish positions inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah said the Israeli army “has not been able to fully establish its control or completely occupy any village” in southern Lebanon.

The resistance group also said its fighters attacked Israeli troops near the border village of Aitarun and repelled them attempting to infiltrate the area a day earlier

The group also reported multiple new rocket salvos, saying it targeted Israeli soldiers in Misgav Am, the city of Kiryat Shmona, soldiers in Manara and a logistical base affiliated with the Northern Command of the Israeli military located between Nahariya and Acre.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah conducted more operations, targeting Israeli military facilities and settlements with rockets, in retaliation for the regime's deadly airstrikes on Lebanon.

Hezbollah hits six Israeli Merkava tanks in southern Lebanon

Hezbollah continues anti-Israel operations in southern Lebanon, destroying several Merkava tanks and downing another advanced Israeli drone.

Israeli media sources said a missile struck the city of Nahariya in the western Galilee region. Explosions were also heard in the city, with the emergency service confirming two injuries.
 
According to an Israeli military source, 50 missiles were fired toward Galilee within two minutes, for the first time since the onset of the war. Three Israelis were injured from shrapnel. 

On Wednesday, Hezbollah said its fighters had destroyed 28 Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers, a personnel carrier and an armored vehicle since the start of the Israeli ground invasion.

More than 70 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 600 others wounded over the period. Three Hermes 450 drones and one Hermes 900 drone have also been shot down by Lebanese fighters, it said.

Tel Aviv, Haifa come under Hezbollah’s retaliatory fire

Hezbollah launches successful retaliatory strikes against the city of Tel Aviv and the Haifa District in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories.

In the most recent aggression, Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted towns near Boudai and al-Halaniya, near the city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley.

Impunity, along with military and Western political support for Israel, has emboldened the regime to repeat its "barbaric atrocities" in its massive invasion of Lebanon amid the continuation of the catastrophic situation in Gaza.

Israeli forces have also used internationally banned phosphorus munitions during a series of recent deadly airstrikes in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese media.

This is not the first time Israel has used banned munitions against the people of Lebanon. The regime used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of the country during its 33-day war on Lebanon in 2006.

According to rights groups the regime’s military forces also used US-supplied white phosphorus bombs in their attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon in October last year.

In a recent investigation, Human Rights Watch verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by the Israeli military in at least 17 municipalities across south Lebanon since October 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Ever since the United States has fully supported Israel in terms of weapons and munitions. 

Hezbollah says Israel rained down cluster bombs on southern Lebanon

Cluster munitions are globally prohibited because they cause both immediate and long-term civilian harm.

The Israeli military presses ahead with its relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip now more than one year into the genocidal war.

The Israeli aggression on Gaza began in October last year, claiming the lives of more than 42,800 so far.

Since late September, Israel has launched an intense air and ground onslaught against Lebanon after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges with Hezbollah over the war in Gaza. 

The regime’s intensified aggression against Lebanon has seen it either attacking targets across the country without prior notice or issuing such notices minutes before launching its strikes.

At least 2,546 people, including 140 children and 270 women, have been killed and 11,862 others wounded in Lebanon as a result of the aggression so far.

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