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Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the Lebanese border town of Maroun al-Ras.
Hezbollah had said on Wednesday its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops who had “infiltrated” a southern border village, while the Lebanese army said Israeli soldiers had made a brief incursion into the south.
It is the first time the Iran-backed group has announced such fighting on Lebanese soil since the start of an escalation last week when the Israeli army began pounding south Lebanon and later killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
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Hezbollah said Wednesday it was battling Israeli soldiers “who infiltrated the village of Maroun al-Ras.”
Hezbollah had said in an earlier statement that it had forced Israeli soldiers to withdraw after they attempted to infiltrate the border village of Adaysseh further northeast.
In the afternoon, the group said that its fighters detonated an explosive device targeting an Israeli force in Yaroun along the southern border. The party said in a statement that its fighters “surprised” the Israeli force as it was encircling Yaroun.
It added that they “killed and wounded all members of the force.”
The Lebanese army said Israeli forces had briefly breached the demarcation line between the countries.
“Israeli enemy forces breached the Blue Line by approximately 400 meters (yards) into Lebanese territory” in two areas, “then withdrew a short time later,” the army said on X.
Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced that one of its soldiers was killed in combat operations in Lebanon, marking the first loss since its forces crossed the border to target Hezbollah.
“Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, aged 22... fell during combat in Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.
A military website said Oster was killed on Wednesday, without providing further details.
Earlier this week, Israel said it started “targeted ground raids” across Israel’s northern border, but the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, on Tuesday said there was “no ground incursion” going on in the south.
Hezbollah at the time said any reports that Israel had entered Lebanese territory were “false claims.”
The Israeli army on Wednesday warned residents to evacuate areas of south Lebanon.
With agencies
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