The Israeli army announced the death of eight soldiers on Wednesday, October 2, the first to be killed since the start of its ground operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Shiite group had reported the first ground clashes between its fighters and the Israeli army in the morning.
Hezbollah claimed to have repelled an Israeli incursion in the town of Odaisseh. The Shiite group also reported fighting in the border town of Maroun Al-Ras, where it claimed to have destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets. A Lebanese soldier was wounded by an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army announced in a statement.
On Tuesday, Israel declared that it had launched "limited, localized and targeted" ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanese villages close to the border, to destroy tunnels and infrastructure. The Israeli army has claimed to be carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah targets for several months, uncovering tunnels and weapons caches under houses, as well as an invasion plan by the Shiite movement.
The reinforcement of regular infantry and armored units from the 36th division, including the Golani brigade, the 188th armored brigade and the 6th infantry brigade, suggests that Israel's operation in Lebanon could go beyond targeted raids. Around 50 villages in southern Lebanon have received calls to evacuate from the Israeli army.
Israel has denied that it has any plans for a wider intervention targeting the Lebanese capital or towns in southern Lebanon. In mid-September, Israel stepped up its military operations on the northern front, in order to weaken Hezbollah and allow the return of tens of thousands of inhabitants of the regions bordering Lebanon who had been displaced by the Lebanese movement's incessant rocket fire over the past year.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army continued its bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Six people were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a Hezbollah relief center in the Bachoura district, in the heart of the capital, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, which announced a death toll of 46 on Wednesday. Since October 2023, 1,928 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Crisis Center.
In Damascus, an Israeli strike on a building in the Mazzeh district, in the west of the Syrian capital, claimed the lives of three civilians and injured three others, reported the Syrian news agency SANA. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Hassan Jaafar Al-Qasir, the son-in-law of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, was among the victims.
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