Eight Israeli troops killed in fighting with Hezbollah inside Lebanon

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike in Kafr Kila, in southern Lebanon. (EPA)

Dahieh & London, October 3 — Israel’s military says eight of its soldiers have been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, its first losses since the start of the ground invasion against the armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, said it had destroyed Israeli tanks during the fighting and insisted it had enough men and ammunition to push back the forces.

Earlier, the Israeli military announced that more infantry and armoured troops had joined the operation seeking to dismantle what it called “terrorist infrastructure” in Lebanese border villages.

Meanwhile, at least five people died and eight were wounded in an Israeli military air strike in the Bachoura area in central Beirut, Lebanese officials said.

The multi-storey building targeted housed a Hezbollah-affiliated health centre and is just metres away from Lebanon's parliament and United Nations Regional Headquarters.

This is the first Israeli strike so close to the centre of Beirut, with other attacks overnight hitting the southern suburb of Dahieh.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, Lebanon's health ministry said 46 people had been killed and 85 wounded in Israeli strikes on the country in the last 24 hours, without differentiating between civilians and combatants.

Hezbollah has been weakened after two weeks of Israeli strikes and other attacks that have killed more than 1,200 people across Lebanon and displaced around 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel has gone on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah attacks.

Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist political, military and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and other countries.

On the second full day of their ground invasion into Lebanon, Israeli troops encountered Hezbollah fighters for the first time.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Wednesday that soldiers backed by aircraft had “eliminated terrorists and dismantled terrorist infrastructure through precision-guided munitions and close-range engagements” in several southern Lebanese areas.

Later, the IDF announced that eight troops had been killed in action. Most were commandos from the elite Egoz and Golani Reconnaissance units.

Six were reportedly ambushed by Hezbollah fighters and another two were killed by mortar fire.

Hezbollah said dozens of its fighters had fired ani-tank missiles at Israeli commandos, killing and wounding dozens of them, during clashes early on Wednesday in one border village.

It also claimed that other troops were targeted with explosives and gunfire on the outskirts of Kafr Kila, and that three Israeli Merkava tanks were destroyed by missiles near Maroun al-Ras.

Hezbollah has spent years building infrastructure in southern Lebanon that includes extensive underground tunnels. It also has thousands of fighters, who know the area well.

Paying tribute to the eight soldiers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they had fallen ”in the midst of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us”.

“This will not happen, because we will stand together, and with God’s help, we will win together,” he added.

Israeli air defences were also in action again a day after they repelled the vast majority of the more than 180 ballistic missiles launched by Iran towards Israel on Tuesday night in retaliation for the Israeli air strike in Beirut last Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a top Iranian commander.

More than 240 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel throughout Wednesday, according to the IDF.

Netanyahu insists that the ground offensive in Lebanon will degrade Hezbollah’s capability and push its fighters back, eventually allowing about 60,000 Israelis to return to their homes near the border.

Meanwhile US President Joe Biden said he did not support an Israeli retaliatory strike on Iranian nuclear sites. He added that the US "will be discussing with the Israelis what they're gonna do" in response to the Iranian barrage.