Israel says at least eight soldiers killed in clashes with Hezbollah
BEIRUT – Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants said Wednesday that they were fighting at close range in southern Lebanon, in what appeared to be the first direct ground confrontation between the two sides since the Israeli invasion began.
The clashes came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel weighed a military response to Iran’s launch Tuesday of nearly 200 missiles at Israel, an attack that further set the region on edge.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that eight of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon. Five were members of the elite Egoz Unit, which the military said had been engaged in “close-range engagements” with Hezbollah militants.
The fighting showed that Hezbollah remained capable of carrying out deadly attacks despite a devastating Israeli bombing campaign targeting its military infrastructure and many of its top commanders, including strikes that killed its longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
On Wednesday, Israel threatened to respond forcefully to Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, after it launched the missile barrage. One man was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us,” Netanyahu said in a short video, referring to Iranian-backed regional militias, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Houthis in Yemen. “This will not happen.”
President Joe Biden, signaling a renewed effort by his administration to seek restraint from Israel in the hopes of avoiding an all-out war in the region, said Wednesday that he would not support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
The idea had been raised by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel, and analysts had said the nuclear facilities were among the targets Israel was considering.
Biden told reporters that leaders of the Group of 7 nations had agreed in a call Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Iran for the missile strike. And he said that all the leaders on the call – from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – had agreed that Israel has the right to respond to Iran’s attack.
“All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond in proportion,” Biden said as he boarded Air Force One on his way to tour storm-damaged areas in South Carolina and North Carolina.
Israel kept up its bombing campaign in Lebanon on Wednesday, with several huge explosions erupting in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, around midnight, shortly after the Israeli military announced that it was conducting “a precise strike” there.
One local news outlet posted a video of explosions lighting up the sky. The blasts were loud enough to be heard 15 miles away in the mountains above the city. State media reported that a health authority building in the Bachoura neighborhood had been hit by an Israeli strike. The Lebanese health ministry said early Thursday that six people had been killed and seven others injured.
After midnight, the Israeli military had posted evacuation warnings in Arabic on social media, telling residents in four neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs to clear the areas ahead of military operations “in the near future” targeting “Hezbollah facilities and interests.”
Hezbollah said earlier that its forces had clashed with Israeli soldiers in at least one town, Maroun al-Ras, about 1 mile from the evacuated Israeli town of Avivim, which Hezbollah said it had targeted with rockets. In another Lebanese town near the Israeli border, Yaroun, Hezbollah said it had detonated an explosive device on Wednesday, injuring Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report.
The ground fighting in Lebanon occurred as the Israeli military said it had struck a former school building in the Gaza Strip, part of what the military called a multifront war against Iranian-backed forces throughout the Middle East. The military said the building was being used by Hamas militants.
Israel also struck a residential building in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Wednesday, killing at least three people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian state news media. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, also took responsibility for a shooting attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday evening that killed seven people. In a statement, the brigades said two gunmen had stabbed a soldier and taken his gun in order to carry out the attack. Israel classified the assault as an act of terrorism.
As Iranians anticipated a retaliatory strike by Israel, long lines formed outside gas stations, stretching miles in many cities including the capital, Tehran, videos showed.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned that any “third party supporting Israel” would face a “strong response,” state media reported.
Israeli officials promised Wednesday that Iran’s attack would not go unpunished, suggesting that Israel was prepared to take more aggressive military action than it did after Iran fired a missile barrage at the country in April. After that attack, Israel fired at an air base in Isfahan, a city surrounded by some of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but avoided hitting the facilities directly.
“We will respond, we know how to locate important targets; we know how to strike with precision and power,” the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said in a statement Wednesday.
Matthew Miller, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, said the United States would continue discussing with Israel what form its response to Iran’s missile strikes would take. “But ultimately,” he said, “it’s up to them – as it is for any sovereign country – to make their own decisions.”
Miller also said that the State Department chartered a flight from Beirut to Istanbul on Wednesday for Americans wanting to leave the country.
The Israeli military announced before 2 a.m. Tuesday that its ground troops had crossed the border into Lebanon “a few hours ago,” after it had been exchanging strikes with Hezbollah for nearly a year. The militant group began attacking Israel in solidarity with its ally Hamas a day after the Oct. 7 assault.
At least 1,600 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health officials (the figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants). And more than 1 million people in the country have been forced from their homes, according to the United Nations.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the missile attack on Israel had been in retaliation for the assassinations of Nasrallah; Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh; and an Iranian commander. Iran’s top military officer, Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, said the missiles had been aimed at three Israeli military bases and the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.
Israel’s air defenses shot down most of the missiles with support from the United States, Britain and France.
Video verified by the New York Times showed dozens of missiles exploding in different parts of Israel, including about a quarter-mile from Mossad’s headquarters. Israel’s military said that an air base had sustained “a few hits” but that essential infrastructure was spared. Photos showed damage elsewhere, including to a school in southern Israel and buildings in Tel Aviv.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said at a U.N. Security Council meeting that the missile strikes had been “a necessary and proportionate response to Israel’s continued terrorist aggressive acts over the past two months.”
“Experience has proved that Israel only understands the language of force,” he said. “Diplomacy has repeatedly failed, as Israel views restraint not as a gesture of good will but as a weakness to exploit.”
But Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the council that the missile barrage had been “an assault on our very existence.”
Israel also barred the U.N. secretary-general, António Guterres, from entering the country, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday, accusing him of failing to forcefully condemn Iran’s latest missile attack.
Hours after the Israeli statement, Guterres told the Security Council that he had condemned Iran’s attack.
“As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April – and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed – I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.