4 Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon amid fierce clashes with Hezbollah
Israel said Friday four of its soldiers were killed in south Lebanon amid clashes with Hezbollah.
Lieutenant Colonel Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon "fell in combat" along with three other soldiers whose names will be released later, the military said in a statement.
Hezbollah said its fighters targeted "three Merkava tanks with guided missiles, which led to their destruction and setting them on fire".
This was after Israeli forces "consisting of an armored platoon and an infantry platoon (tried) to infiltrate towards the northern side of the Ali al-Taher hills" -- a strategic site overlooking the key town of Nabatieh.
"The clashes are still ongoing," Hezbollah said in the statement released in the early hours.
Hezbollah said on Thursday it was fighting "a force of the Israeli enemy army that attempted to advance from the town of Arnoun towards the outskirts of Kfartibnit", near Nabatieh. "As a result, the enemy was forced to retreat and deploy helicopters under the cover of smoke screens and artillery fire during the night to evacuate its losses," the group said.
Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported deadly Israeli strikes on Thursday.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said that peacekeepers in Lebanon had also reported exchanges of fire on Thursday.
- Israeli offensive -
Hezbollah said on Thursday that its fighters had repelled a four-day Israeli offensive towards the Ali al-Taher hills -- believed to hold important military infrastructure for the armed group -- and Kfartibnit.
Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops and tanks with drones, rockets and artillery, forcing them to retreat "under the cover of smoke screens and artillery fire during the night".
Also on Thursday, the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, said that Israel's war in Lebanon had "failed" to eliminate the group.
He also called on Lebanese authorities to "adopt a framework for indirect negotiations with the enemy" to stop the fighting.
He said the Israeli military must "fully comply with the cessation of hostilities on land, at sea and in the air, and prepare for and begin withdrawal within 60 days, without any need whatsoever for direct negotiations".
The Israeli military, however, said on Thursday that it would continue to operate in southern Lebanon even after the United States and Iran signed their agreement.
The military also published a map of its so-called security zone -- which runs some 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory and includes the area where Hezbollah said it had confronted the Israeli offensive.
It said troops would remain there "to remove threats and strengthen the defense of Israel's northern residents".
In a later statement, an Israeli military official said the army would also "continue to remove threats to IDF soldiers and the civilians of the State of Israel that are identified beyond the security zone".
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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