Israel battle Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, loses 8 soldiers

Israel’s ground incursion into Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants left eight Israeli soldiers dead Wednesday, while the region braced for further escalation as Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack a day earlier.

The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks, without elaborating. The assaults were among the deadliest against Israeli forces in months.

Another seven troops, including a combat medic, were wounded. Earlier, the military had announced that a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade was killed in Lebanon, the first Israeli combat death since the start of the incursion.

The announcements came on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong war that triggered the widening conflict rages on with no end in sight, Israeli ground and air operations in a hard-hit city killed at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war.

The escalation on multiple fronts has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could further draw in Iran — which backs Hezbollah and Hamas — as well as the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.

Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The Israeli military said ground forces backed by airstrikes had killed militants in “close-range engagements” without saying where.

Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.

Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device, but the militants did not elaborate on the number of dead and wounded.

The two attacks announced Wednesday followed other assaults on Israeli forces earlier in the year. In June, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in central Gaza. the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces since Israel-Hamas war erupted.

The Lebanese army said Israeli forces advanced some 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short period,” its first confirmation of the incursion.

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