The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday morning announced that Sgt. Maj. (res.) Ronny Ganizate, of the Alon Brigade’s 5030th Battalion, was killed fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as the military continued to battle the Iran-backed terror group on multiple fronts including Syria.

Another reserve soldier from the 5030th Battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident and taken to a hospital, the military added.

Ganizate, 36, of Givat Shmuel, was the 12th Israeli soldier killed in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and during operations on the border. Israel launched an offensive on September 23 aimed at removing the terror group from southern Lebanon following a year of near-daily cross-border attacks.

Also Thursday morning, the IDF said that air force jets struck and killed two Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon.

One was named as Ahmad Mustaga Alhaj Ali, responsible for the firing of hundreds of rockets and anti-tank missiles at the border city of Kiryat Shmona. The other was Muhammad Ali Hamdan, commander of Hezbollah’s anti-tank corps in Meiss Ej Jabal, across the border from Kiryat Shmona, who the IDF said was also behind many attacks on northern communities.

The airstrikes came after two civilians, Revital Yehud, 45, and Dvir Sharvit, 43, were killed in a rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona Wednesday, as Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel and military forces aimed heavy air and ground fire at the Lebanese terror group.

The pair of fatalities, the first civilians to be killed since fighting between Israel and Lebanon intensified late last month, came on a day that also saw five people injured in a large rocket barrage on Haifa.

The IDF statement on Thursday morning said that it had struck weapons caches in south Lebanon and Beirut overnight, noting that steps were taken ahead of the strikes to minimize harm to civilians, including warnings to evacuate.

Also Wednesday, the IDF said in a statement that it killed Adham Jahout, a Hezbollah operative in the Quneitra area of southern Syria just across the border from the Golan Heights earlier in the day.

Jahout “passed information from Syrian regime officials to the Hezbollah organization,” as well as other information it gathered along the border to target the Golan Heights, the IDF said, in a rare Israeli confirmation of operations in Syria.

Early Thursday, Syrian state media reported a separate Israeli attack on the central provinces of Homs and Hama, which state news agency SANA said caused “material damage” but no casualties.

“At around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), the Israeli enemy launched an air attack… targeting a car assembly factory in the industrial area of Hassia in Homs province” and a military position in Hama, SANA said, citing a military source.

Hassia is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the city of Hama.

Citing the manager of the industrial area in Hassia, SANA reported the attack targeted not only the factory but also vehicles “loaded with medical and relief supplies… which led to a large fire” that firefighters were working to extinguish.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said an “Iranian car factory” in Hassia was targeted “directly,” while the strikes in Hama province targeted an area home to air defenses and government troops.

Since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including Hezbollah.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.

The ongoing fighting came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, their first call in nearly 50 days. During the call, which focused on Israel’s response to the Iranian missile attack earlier this month, the White House said that Biden affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah while emphasizing the need for a diplomatic agreement that would allow civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

In recent days, the Biden administration has gradually walked away from its initiative for a 21-day ceasefire, while intensifying its support for the limited Israeli raids aimed at dismantling Hezbollah posts along the border, which were launched shortly after the White House rolled out the ceasefire effort.

According to the White House readout of Wednesday’s call, Biden stressed “the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut,” where Israel has been conducting airstrikes largely targeting the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh.

Hezbollah has lobbed over 3,000 rockets at Israel’s north — and in some cases beyond — since Israel launched its offensive on September 23. Israel says it is seeking to make it safe for some 60,000 people displaced by the ongoing Hezbollah attacks since October 2023 to return home, including by eliminating the threat of a Hamas-style cross-border rampage it alleges Hezbollah had planned to unleash on northern towns.

The Israeli military said it has dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure along the border and killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters. It has also carried out airstrikes deeper inside Lebanon, including an attack on a coastal town near Sidon that Lebanon said killed four people on Wednesday. It did not say if the four were civilians or combatants.

The attacks on northern Israel over the last year have resulted in the deaths of 28 civilians. In addition, 34 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.

These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including the ground operation, in which the military says at least 450 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.