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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 21, 2006 |
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Two Apache helicopters collided over northern Israel, near the city of Kiryat Shmonah, late Thursday night. An officer was killed and three soldiers injured in the crash.
Four IDF soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in heavy fighting with Hezbollah just over the "blue line" border in south Lebanon, close to Moshav Avivim, on Thursday afternoon and evening. Two other soldiers were killed in the same sector on the previous day.
Hezbollah fired mortar shells in the area throughout the afternoon in an attempt to disrupt the rescue of the wounded. Several guerillas were killed in the fierce gunbattles.
Major-General Benny Gantz, head of the Ground Forces Command, said Thursday that fighting in Southern Lebanon would continue despite the causalties. Military analysts said that casualties were expected to mount as the ground campaign advanced north.
Hezbollah bunkers are well-concealedand discernible only from a close distance, said Gantz. "The operation is challenging, difficult and complex. Unfortunately, there is the price of casualties, but the other side, unlike us, doesn't report their casualties," he added.
Thousands of Israeli troops are operating in south Lebanon, targeting entrenched Hezbollah positions, including bunkers and tunnels dug by Hezbollah militants. Fighters hide inside these tunnels -- often dug under homes in villages and in forests -- along with Katyusha rockets, from which they periodically emerge to fire into Israel.
Thousands more reservists called up for ground offensive
The army said Friday that it has called up more reserve troops to augment its current forces in northern Israel, widening speculation that a major ground offensive against Lebanon has moved beyond the planning stage.
The army said the call-up was issued in the morning with the soldiers being told to gather at specific meeting points for deployment northward.
The exact numbers of troops was not disclosed, but a military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said it would be several thousand.
The decision came amid Israeli efforts to warn residents of an approximately 32-kilometer (20-mile) wide area of southern Lebanon to evacuate immediately.
Top Israeli officials met Thursday night to decide how big a force to send in, according to senior military officials. They said Israel won't stop its offensive until Hezbollah is forced behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the border -- creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw 18 years of Israeli presence since 1982.
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