The military said eight soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon as Israeli forces fought at close range with Hezbollah fighters.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that eight 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 eight fallen soldiers were the first combat deaths of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which began overnight on Tuesday. The military said at least seven other soldiers were seriously wounded, but it did not provide further details about the deadly incidents.
The military did not specify where the soldiers were killed, saying only that they “fell in battle in southern Lebanon” on Wednesday.
Five of the eight were members of the elite Egoz Unit, which the military had said earlier in the day was engaged in “targeted operations in several areas of southern Lebanon,” including “close-range engagements” with Hezbollah militants.
“I would like to send my condolences from the bottom of my heart to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
In a series of statements posted online, Hezbollah said it had fought Israeli soldiers on Wednesday in the border villages of Yaroun, Odaisseh and Maroun al-Ras.
The group also posted video that showed two military helicopters evacuating soldiers from a dry, grassy field, including two people on a stretcher. But it did not say where the video had been taken.
Maroun al-Ras, which was the scene of a major battle during Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, 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 similar 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.”
The Israeli military identified the eight soldiers who have been killed as Capt. Eitan Itzhak Oster, 22, Capt. Harel Etinger, 23, Capt. Itai Ariel Giat, 23, Major Noam Barzilay, 22, Major Or Mantzur, 21, Major Nazar Itkin, 21, Sergeant Almken Terefe, 21, and Sergeant Ido Broyer, 21. It did not identify the wounded soldiers.
Liam Stack is a Times reporter on special assignment in Israel, covering the war in Gaza. More about Liam Stack
