Israeli soldiers killed after attacks in Lebanon

Israel suffered one of the deadliest days of its ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday, November 13, when six of its soldiers were killed in fighting near the border.

The soldiers “fell during fighting in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a statement. Their deaths mean 47 Israeli troops have been killed in the battle with Hezbollah since September 30, when Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon.

The army’s announcement came after Israel’s new Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said there would be no easing in the war against Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared on

Since September 23, Israel has stepped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah strongholds in southern Beirut and in the east and south of the country. On September 30, it sent land troops.

It came after nearly a year of cross-border firefights launched by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli strike struck Aramoun, a densely populated area south of Beirut that lies outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, killing eight people, according to the Health Ministry.

Lebanese state media on the same day reported a third wave of Israeli attacks on Hezbollah’s bastion in southern Beirut in 24 hours.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, said it had intercepted some of the “five projectiles” that entered Israeli territory from Lebanon.

Katz told senior military commanders during his first visit to the border area since his appointment last week that Israel “would not enter into a ceasefire, we will not take our foot off the pedal, and we will not allow any settlement that does not the achievement of our war objectives.”

Katz added: “We will continue to attack Hezbollah everywhere.”

Israel’s objectives include disarming Hezbollah and driving the militants beyond the Litani River, which flows through southern Lebanon.

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After Katz’s speech, another airstrike hit a Beirut suburb on Wednesday evening, following a warning from the Israeli army for residents to evacuate.

‘No more time’

Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had fired ballistic missiles at the Israeli army headquarters in the commercial center of Tel Aviv, where the Defense Ministry is also located.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli Army Spokesperson’s Unit said it “would not respond to Hezbollah’s accusations”.

Lebanese authorities say more than 3,360 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began cross-border clashes.

Rocket fire from Lebanon killed two residents of the northern Israeli town of Nahariya on Tuesday. The deaths bring to 45 the number of civilians killed in northern Israel as a result of rocket fire from Lebanon.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, an ally of Hamas, released a video earlier on Wednesday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza, identifying himself as Sasha Trupanov.

When Hamas militants carried out the October 7 attack, they took 251 hostages into the Gaza Strip. Some were already dead. Of those, 97 are still being held hostage, while 34 are confirmed dead, but their bodies remain in Gaza.

Trupanov’s mother Lena urged the immediate release of the hostages in a statement issued by the campaign group Hostage and Missing Families Forum. They don’t have time anymore.”

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 43,712 people have been killed in the more than 13-month war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Le Monde with

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