October 18, 2024
Dozens of Israeli soldiers were wounded by a
Hezbollah drone near the border with Lebanon on 17 October, coming as strict
military censorship continues to obscure the rising number of casualties
inflicted on Israel by the Lebanese resistance.
A gathering of Israeli troops was struck by a drone
in the border area on Thursday, resulting in at least 31 injuries, Israel Hayom
reported on 18 October.
Hebrew media reported a “difficult incident” on the
border before reports of the injuries emerged. Helicopters were heard
transporting the injured.
The Hezbollah drone attack came as Israeli troops
infiltrating southern Lebanon continue to take heavy losses.
The Israeli army announced in a statement on 18
October that five Israeli soldiers, including two officers, were killed in a
confrontation with Hezbollah on Wednesday.
“Elite Golani soldiers entered a building yesterday
after it was declared safe and with air support. When they were inside, a
number of Hezbollah elements opened fire at them from a very close range,”
Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Thursday, describing the incident in which the
soldiers were killed.
The Israeli army has not released an updated figure
of how many soldiers have been killed since ground operations began in south
Lebanon on 2 October. By 6 October, Hezbollah said it had killed at least 25
soldiers and officers since the infiltrations started.
According to reports in Israeli media, the army has
only been announcing serious injuries and has not been releasing figures on the
moderate and minor injuries of the Lebanon ground operations.
Hezbollah vowed in a statement early on 18 October
to escalate military operations against Israel.
“Based on the directives of the resistance
leadership, the Islamic Resistance Operations Room announces the transition to
a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy, which
will be revealed in the events of the coming days,” Hezbollah’s Operations Room
said in a statement.
The Lebanese resistance announced numerous
operations throughout the day on Thursday, saying it targeted and destroyed
several Merkava tanks, killing and wounding a number of soldiers.
“The Islamic Resistance fighters targeted, at 10:50
pm on Thursday 10-17-2024, two Merkava tanks in Jal al-Deir, near the Avivim
settlement opposite the town of Maroun al-Ras, with guided missiles, which led
to their burning and the deaths and injuries of their crew,” Hezbollah said on
Thursday evening.
Several other troop gatherings inside south Lebanon
and army sites along the border were targeted.
The drone attack on 18 October came just days after
Hezbollah drones hit a dining hall at a Golani Brigade base in Benyamina, south
of Haifa.
At least four soldiers were killed and over 60
injured as they were having dinner at their military base on 13 October.
Resistance factions launched a rocket
barrage on the evening of 14 October, targeting the US military base at the
Conoco gas field in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, Al Mayadeen reported.
The attack came two days after another
resistance faction launched multiple rockets at the same site, Al Mayadeen’s
sources said.
US troops illegally occupy the base in
partnership with Kurdish proxies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an
offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The same sources indicate that US
forces at Conoco targeted the Huwayjah Sakr area and the eastern outskirts of
Deir Ezzor, an area under Syrian army control, without causing any damage.
Al Mayadeen reported that four
civilians were injured in the attack, including a woman, while six artillery
shells impacted the perimeter of the towns of Jufra and Saker Island.
Last week, US forces began reinforcing
Al-Tanf base at the Syria–Jordan–Iraq border to prevent drone strikes targeting
Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights.
Sources speaking with Al Mayadeen
reported that “US forces stationed at the al-Tanf base, located at the
Syria–Jordan–Iraq border triangle, have brought in additional weapons and
equipment to the base to strengthen it and install more specialized air defense
systems.”
The sources added that “the US side
has already begun activating surveillance devices designed to monitor drones,
with the aim of intercepting them before they cross southern Syria toward the
occupied Golan Heights.”
On 4 October, Iraqi resistance
factions launched a drone strike against targets in northern Israel, killing
two Israeli soldiers and injuring 24 others.
Israel has been bombing sites
throughout Syria as part of the broader US-Israeli war with the Axis of
Resistance.
On Thursday, Syrian state media
reported an Israeli air strike hit the coastal city of Latakia, injuring two
people and destroying buildings.
SANA said that Syrian anti-aircraft
defense intercepted “hostile targets” in the skies above Latakia.
Gunmen carried out a resistance
operation targeting Israeli soldiers near the Jordan border on 18 October, the
Times of Israel reported.
Israeli observation soldiers from the
727th Battalion spotted the attackers near the border with Jordan, and troops
headed to the area.
Two gunmen opened fire on the Israeli
soldiers, injuring an active-duty soldier and a reservist from the Home Front
Command. Israeli forces returned fire and killed the gunmen a few meters from
the border fence.
The attackers crossed the border close
to the Israeli settlement of Neot HaKikar, in the Arava Valley, south of the
Dead Sea.
The army and police are blocking roads
in the area and are carrying out ground and air searches for a possible third
attacker.
The Islamic resistance movement Hamas
issued a statement Friday praising the attack, saying it “marks a significant
development in the Al-Aqsa Flood battle. It comes as the natural response of
the sons of the Arab and Islamic nations to the brutal crimes of the occupation
against our Palestinian people in all their places of presence.”
“This operation confirms that the
pulse of the free Arab peoples will not stop and will continue to support our
Palestinian people and its valiant resistance in confronting the crimes of the
occupation, breaking through its fortifications, and ultimately deterring and
expelling it from our homeland and sanctities,” the statement added.
The attack comes one day after the
Israeli military published photos showing the body of Hamas leader Yahya
Sinwar, who was killed a day earlier in southern Gaza.
The Israeli army assumed it was
engaging in a routine clash before discovering that one of the bodies of those
killed bore a strong resemblance to Sinwar the following day.
Hamas has not yet released an official
statement confirming the death of its leader, who replaced Ismail Haniyeh as
political bureau chief after his assassination in Tehran earlier this year.
Iran responded on 18 October to the misquoting of its speaker of
parliament by a French newspaper the day before regarding Tehran’s position on
reaching a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon.
“Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf’s stance was clear and straightforward,
Iran fully supports the decisions made by the Lebanese people, their
government, and the Resistance in pursuit of a lasting ceasefire,” the Iranian
parliament said in a statement.
The parliament said that “no party should assume that a sustainable
political settlement can be achieved without the approval of the Resistance”
and that “Iran is ready to cooperate with Europe to support any ceasefire that
has the backing of both the Resistance and the Lebanese government.”
“Reports attributed to Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf by some media
outlets are completely false,” it went on to say, adding that the Iranian
parliament speaker’s “position on the ongoing developments in Lebanon remains
unchanged, consistent with” his speeches in parliament and comments he made
during his recent trip to Lebanon.
The statement was a response to a report released by French newspaper Le
Figaro, which interviewed Qalibaf.
Iranian sources also confirmed to Al Mayadeen that the French daily
misquoted Qalibaf. The sources said Qalibaf only expressed Iran’s support for a
ceasefire agreement endorsed by the Lebanese government and the resistance.
Le Figaro claimed that the parliament speaker expressed Tehran’s readiness
to negotiate an implementation of UN Resolution 1701 with France.
As a result, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement
that the comments attributed to Qalibaf constituted a “blatant interference in
Lebanese affairs and an attempt to impose an unacceptable tutelage over
Lebanon.”
Mikati also called on Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib to summon the
Iranian Chargé d’Affaires in Beirut and inquire about the statements.
Resolution 1701, drafted at the end of the 2006 war in Lebanon, calls for
Hezbollah’s withdrawal to behind the Litani River. Israel never respected the
agreement, prompting Hezbollah to reestablish a strong presence along the
border in the years that followed.
Washington and Paris have been presenting proposals all year aimed at
securing Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the border area without seeking any
concessions from Israel. Hezbollah has repeatedly vowed not to stop its attacks
against Israel until the war in Gaza is brought to an end and has refused any
discussion on the Lebanese border situation until this occurs.
Qalibaf visited Beirut less than a week ago, accompanied by a delivery of
medical devices and other forms of aid. The speaker also held meetings with
officials to express Iran’s support for the Lebanese resistance and people
throughout Israel’s assault on Lebanon.
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