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Israeli troops pack their gear as they prepare to enter Lebanon to battle with Hezbollah fighters. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 26, 2006 |
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The IDF sustained heavy casualties Wednesday morning in a fierce ongoing in the village of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. Toward the evening there was another pitched battle near Maroun al-Ras. Both towns had been believed to have been under IDF control.
In a planned ambush, dozens of Hizbullah fighters lay in wait in the predawn hours Wednesday morning for Israel Defense Forces soldiers to enter the village of Bint Jbeil.
The fighting took place between a strip of 15 houses, where the terrorists opened fire from entrenched positions. Forces from the Golani infantry brigade moved among the houses, with backup forces covering them from various points within the structures. The initial battle was over quickly, but the next six hours were spent in heroic rescue efforts to return the wounded and killed soldiers to Israel.
Three troops were seriously injured, four were moderately hurt and 15 sustained light wounds. Among the injured were two officers.
13 hours after the soldiers were killed following the dawn ambush, an officer was killed and three soldiers wounded by a Hezbollah missile.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday Israel would maintain a security zone in the south until either a multinational force "with enforcement capability" is deployed on the border or Hezbollah is pushed back in a cease-fire agreement that also cuts off the supply of its weapons.
As the Israeli incursion continued, a senior Hezbollah leader said the guerrillas had not expected such an onslaught when they snatched two Israeli soldiers July 12.
"The truth is -- let me say this clearly -- we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, told The Associated Press.
A Jordanian military plane landed at Beirut airport Wednesday to evacuate wounded Lebanese, airport officials said. The aircraft was the first to land since the airport was closed July 13 after Israeli airstrikes on its runways.
Israeli commanders said Tuesday they would not push deep into Lebanon but were determined to stop Hezbollah missiles that have continued despite Israel's punishing raids on Hezbollah targets.
Tuesday marked a month since the start of what is now a two-front war between Israel and Islamic militants. On June 25, an Israeli soldier was captured by Hamas militants in Gaza, prompting an Israeli offensive there. Two weeks into that flare-up, Hezbollah snatched the two other soldiers.
In that month, the crisis has spiraled far beyond anyone's imagining.
Komati said Hezbollah had thought Israel would respond to the soldiers' capture by snatching Hezbollah leaders in commando raids and that negotiations for a swap would start, giving Hezbollah the chance to try to win the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel.
He called the Israeli assault "unjustified" and said Hezbollah would not lay down its weapons.
Israel and the United States say their ultimate aim is to fundamentally reshape Lebanon to end Hezbollah's presence by the border, strengthen democracy in the country and ensure lasting peace with Israel. In the process, Lebanon has been ravaged, with hundreds killed, nearly a half-million driven from their homes and vast damage to roads and bridges.
Israel is facing tougher than expected resistance as it makes it first small ground steps into hilltop villages across the border. Its troops sealed Bint Jbail on Tuesday and moved on the nearby village of Yaroun, fighting guerrillas there. Fifteen Americans fled Yaroun in a convoy of 80 cars carrying residents that reached the southern port of Tyre on Tuesday.
Hezbollah reported two guerrillas killed in Tuesday's fighting, while Israel said three of its soldiers were wounded. The Israeli military said Hezbollah's commander for the central border sector, known as Abu Jafr, was killed.
So far the three villages that Israeli ground troops have advanced on -- Bint Jbail, Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras, which was seized by soldiers over the weekend -- are in a roughly 3-square-mile pocket. Israeli bombardment has also destroyed most Hezbollah observer posts all along the border, U.N. observers say.
Israel suggested that pocket would grow -- but the extent of its intended action was unclear.
Israeli army commanders said Israeli ground troops would not push deep into Lebanon, but instead aim to kill as many Hezbollah fighters as possible and push others away from the border.
"We are very much dealing with the villages and towns close to the border," Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan said. "Our aim is not to occupy the territory."
Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut on Tuesday for the first time in nearly two days after pausing during Rice's stopover in the Lebanese capital. A string of huge explosions raised a pall of smoke from Beirut's southern districts, and Israel said it was hitting 10 Hezbollah residences.
A Hezbollah spokesman said 25 of his fighters had been killed as of Monday, and the group said two more died in ground fighting Tuesday -- raising the previously announced toll of 11. Later in the day, Hezbollah announced the deaths of two more fighters, bringing the toll to at least 27.
Israel claims Hezbollah is greatly underreporting its casualties and says dozens have died.
Despite estimates of the number of Hezbollah militants that Israel claims were killed and the number that Hezbollah asserts were killed, there was no way to accurately determine the number or often distinguish between civilians and fighters.
Along with its daily press reports tracking major violence, the U.N. observers along the Israel-Lebanese border, known as the Blue Line, keep close track of individual incidents.
Those figures, which do not include attacks far to the north, give a rare snapshot into the intensity of the violence in southern Lebanon.
There were, for example, at least 73 acts of violence near the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon on July 24 alone, including 45 air raids and artillery strikes by Israel and 12 missile launches from Hezbollah.
That was in addition to numerous clashes around the town of Bint Jbail, a town known for its intense support of Hezbollah.
The AP contributed to this report.
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