By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-10-25 10:35:08 | Updated at 2024-10-25 12:22:29
1 hour ago
As clashes with Hezbollah militants intensified, Israel’s public broadcaster reported that the soldiers had been killed when a rocket struck a building they were in.
- Oct. 25, 2024, 6:34 a.m. ET
The Israeli military said on Friday that five soldiers had been killed amid clashes with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, the latest indication that the conflict there is escalating despite diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration and others to calm the region.
The five soldiers, all of them army reservists, were killed overnight when a rocket struck the building they were in, according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. Twenty-four other soldiers were wounded in the attack, the broadcaster reported.
It was among the most casualties for the Israeli military in a single attack since it launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon this month.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, claimed to have carried out two rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers operating near the southern Lebanese town of Markaba, which has been the scene of intense clashes. It was not immediately clear if that was where the soldiers had been killed.
Although Israeli airstrikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership, analysts say the group is far from incapacitated, and Israeli forces say they have confronted a flexible adversary.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has continued to use territory it controls in Lebanon to launch strikes into Israeli territory. Since Israel last week killed the leader of Hamas, its ally, Hezbollah has carried out increasingly bold strikes, including a drone attack that damaged a property belonging to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Israel has ramped up its bombing campaign in the southern outskirts of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, in a densely populated cluster of neighborhoods where Hezbollah holds sway. The area, known as the Dahiya, was hit by intense Israeli airstrikes overnight, many of them without evacuation warnings.
The Israeli military said on Friday that its air force had struck over 200 targets in Lebanon over the past day and had killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit. The Israeli military also said it had continued to locate and destroy underground compounds used by Hezbollah along Israel’s northern border.
Israel’s military campaign has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. About 1.4 million people — more than a fifth of the population — have been displaced amid the fighting, according to U.N. agencies.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
