Israel Confirms 1st Military Fatality in Lebanon Invasion

• Oct. 2, 2024, 10:12 a.m. ET

Israel’s military said Wednesday that one of its soldiers had been killed in combat in Lebanon, as Israeli ground troops and fighter jets pounded Hezbollah sites across a broad swath of southern Lebanon and the Lebanese militia lobbed dozens of rockets at towns in northern Israel.

The military identified the fallen soldier as Capt. Eitan Itzhak Oster, 22, from the city of Modi’in Maccabim Re’ut in central Israel, but did not specify where he was killed. He is the first soldier confirmed to have died in Lebanon since the Israeli military announced Tuesday that it had begun an invasion of the country.

The military said Captain Oster was a squad commander in the commando brigade of the elite Egoz Unit. Earlier in the day, it said members of that unit were engaged in “targeted operations in several areas of southern Lebanon” that included “close-range engagements” with Hezbollah militants.

In a series of statements posted online, Hezbollah said it had fought Israeli soldiers on Wednesday in Yaroun, Odaisseh and Maroun al-Ras, a border village that was the scene of a major battle during Israel’s last invasion of Lebanon, in 2006.

Maroun al-Ras is roughly one mile from the Israeli town of Avivim, which Hezbollah said it had targeted with “a salvo of rockets” earlier in the day. Avivim was evacuated last year because of such attacks.

In Yaroun, Hezbollah said it had detonated an explosive device on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in injuries to Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military did not comment on the report of injuries, and it could not be independently verified.

Al-Manar, a television network owned and operated by Hezbollah, said fighters from the group’s elite Radwan Force had ambushed Israeli soldiers near Odaisseh after they crossed the border from the Israeli village of Misgav Am.

Lebanon’s army — which is not a party to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah — said in a statement that Israeli forces had crossed the border and traveled roughly a quarter of a mile inside Lebanon in the areas of Yaroun and Odaisseh, “then withdrew after a short period.”