Israel’s military said Wednesday that eight soldiers had been killed in “intense fighting” with Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, three days after it launched ground operations in the country. The update on the ongoing ground raids came almost a year after Israel launched its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for that Iran-backed group’s Oct. 7 terrorist rampage, prompting Hamas’ ally Hezbollah to start firing rockets at northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces announced the beginning of it said would be “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Monday, after about two weeks of blistering airstrikes on the group’s strongholds in southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. Those ongoing strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced about 1 million from their homes, according to Lebanese officials.
