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24 IDF soldiers killed Saturday in south Lebanon
Twenty-four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and another 11 seriously wounded in heavy clashes Saturday with Hezbollah forces in south Lebanon, after Israel dramatically expanded its ground operation in the area.
As part of the expanded operation, IAF helicopters dropped a large number of Israeli troops deep inside Lebanese territory on Saturday, in the largest operation of its kind since 1973.
IDF troops were engaged in heavy exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, as forces thrust northward to the Litani River under cover of intense artillery fire. IDF sources said more than 80 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the clashes over the weekend, at least 40 of them on Saturday.
Israel has nearly tripled the number of forces in Lebanon as part of its expanded ground war, and expects to fight for another week, despite a United Nations cease-fire resolution, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Saturday. Halutz said IDF troops would stay in Lebanon until an international force arrives. "We have almost tripled our forces that are operating in Lebanon," Halutz told reporters.
A top IDF official has said that the army will stop its offensive as soon as it is ordered to do so by the political leadership and later it will begin to retrace its steps to uncover any pockets of resistance that may remain in the area.
UN Middle East envoy Alvaro de Soto told Reuters on Saturday the UN force could begin deploying in seven to 10 days, suggesting there is still some time before the "immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations," as called for in the resolution.
Slain soldiers
Dozens of soldiers were hurt during the fighting in Lebanon on Saturday. At least 23 of them were taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment.
None of the soldiers killed on Saturday were reservists.
An IDF spokeswoman said an IDF officer and two soldiers were killed Saturday when Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile at their tank.
She said another soldier died when Hezbollah launched a similar attack on a structure in the area where he and other troops had taken position.
Two soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in an accident that occured when an IDF tank accidentally ran them over in the village of Shakif-al-Amal in the East. Two other soldiers were wounded in the accident, one seriously and the other lightly.
In the eastern section, one soldier was killed when an anti-tank missile hit his tank close to the village of Kanatra. Another soldier was killed when troops exchanged fire near the village of Hadata on the eastern section.
Three other soldiers were seriously wounded in separate attacks on tanks and an armored vehicle near the villages of Tyre and Dir Sirin.
With the expansion of the ground offensive in Lebanon, four divisions were operating in south Lebanon and most of the activity was focused in areas from where Hezbollah has been firing short-range rockets into Israel. Sources in the IDF General Staff said four to seven days would be needed to complete the occupation of the area.
An IDF soldier was killed in clashes with Hezbollah in the village of Rashef in south Lebanon on Friday and another sustained moderate wounds. According to the IDF, at least ten Hezbollah militants were killed overnight.
More
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749479.html
IDF troops were engaged in heavy exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, as forces thrust northward to the Litani River under cover of intense artillery fire. IDF sources said more than 80 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the clashes over the weekend, at least 40 of them on Saturday.
Israel has nearly tripled the number of forces in Lebanon as part of its expanded ground war, and expects to fight for another week, despite a United Nations cease-fire resolution, IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Saturday. Halutz said IDF troops would stay in Lebanon until an international force arrives. "We have almost tripled our forces that are operating in Lebanon," Halutz told reporters.
A top IDF official has said that the army will stop its offensive as soon as it is ordered to do so by the political leadership and later it will begin to retrace its steps to uncover any pockets of resistance that may remain in the area.
UN Middle East envoy Alvaro de Soto told Reuters on Saturday the UN force could begin deploying in seven to 10 days, suggesting there is still some time before the "immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations," as called for in the resolution.
Slain soldiers
Dozens of soldiers were hurt during the fighting in Lebanon on Saturday. At least 23 of them were taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment.
None of the soldiers killed on Saturday were reservists.
An IDF spokeswoman said an IDF officer and two soldiers were killed Saturday when Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile at their tank.
She said another soldier died when Hezbollah launched a similar attack on a structure in the area where he and other troops had taken position.
Two soldiers from the Golani Brigade were killed in an accident that occured when an IDF tank accidentally ran them over in the village of Shakif-al-Amal in the East. Two other soldiers were wounded in the accident, one seriously and the other lightly.
In the eastern section, one soldier was killed when an anti-tank missile hit his tank close to the village of Kanatra. Another soldier was killed when troops exchanged fire near the village of Hadata on the eastern section.
Three other soldiers were seriously wounded in separate attacks on tanks and an armored vehicle near the villages of Tyre and Dir Sirin.
With the expansion of the ground offensive in Lebanon, four divisions were operating in south Lebanon and most of the activity was focused in areas from where Hezbollah has been firing short-range rockets into Israel. Sources in the IDF General Staff said four to seven days would be needed to complete the occupation of the area.
An IDF soldier was killed in clashes with Hezbollah in the village of Rashef in south Lebanon on Friday and another sustained moderate wounds. According to the IDF, at least ten Hezbollah militants were killed overnight.
More
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749479.html
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Some Israeli troops have reached the key target of the Litani River, the army says, but 19 Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded in the fighting on Saturday.
It was Israel's highest number of casualties in a single day since the conflict began.
Israeli jets hit a string of targets in Lebanon on Saturday, saying it killed some 40 Hezbollah fighters. There were heavy clashes elsewhere in the country, and reports from Lebanese sources that some 15 civilians were killed in an air strike.
...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4787857.stm
The Israeli helicopter was shot down by a new type of missile on Saturday night in the Lebanese town of Yater 6 km (4 miles) north of the border, Hezbollah said.
Israel confirmed that there were casualties resulting from a helicopter crash in Lebanon.
The Israeli army said it was the first aircraft shot down in Lebanon since its war with Hizbollah erupted on July 12.
In Beirut, a Hezbollah spokesman said the Shia group had shot down the aircraft in the border village of Yater.
"The fighters of the Islamic resistance (armed wing of Hezbollah) fired rockets at a helicopter carrying troops who were trying to land on the Yater hill," he said.
"It was struck and it fell," he added. Hezbollah says that the helicopter was shot down by a new type of missile called the 'Waad'.
At least eleven Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Lebanon in an apparent attempt to destroy Hezbollah forces south of the Litani river, 30 km north of the border, before a ceasefire begins on Monday morning.
The Israeli army said it had killed more than 40 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours and destroyed several rocket launchers. Hezbollah denied that it had lost that many fighters in the clashes.
At least 1,061 people in Lebanon and 135 Israelis have been killed since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1411A733-ABE9-4E3A-BCEC-1A9D55A5B6D8.htm
"A top IDF official has said that the army will stop its offensive as soon as it is ordered to do so by the political leadership and later it will begin to retrace its steps to uncover any pockets of resistance that may remain in the area."
The translation:
When we are forced to depart, we plan to take our revenge on any remaining surviving civilians.
At least five of the rockets were long-range missiles provided by Syria, which landed in open areas in the Jezreel Valley town of Migdal Hae'emek.
A barrage of rockets landed across the north Sunday morning. Mahadi Hiyat, 83, was killed when a rocket crashed directly into his house near the town of Shlomi.
Nine people were wounded when rockets landed in the northern port city of Haifa and its suburbs. Six were wounded, one seriously, when a rocket hit near a school in the suburbs of Haifa. The other three sustained light to moderate wounds.
Three people were wounded, two seriously and one lightly, when a rocket crashed next to a residential building in the Haifa suburbs.
Two other people were wounded, one lightly and another moderately, when a rocket hit a Western Galilee community.
Another woman was moderately wounded when a rockets slammed into the town of Safed. Eight others were lightly wounded in the attack. Another was lightly injured by shrapnel when a rocket landed near him in the border town of Kiryat Shmona.
About 50 of the day's rockets landed in the northern town of Nahariya. Another 50 rockets landed in Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee panhandle.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/749968.html