'Unable to advance': Hezbollah details staggering Israeli losses in three weeks of war
The Israeli army has incurred about 700 casualties since beginning ground infiltrations into Lebanon early this month
Hezbollah fighters have killed over 70 Israeli army soldiers and officers in southern Lebanon and have injured hundreds, the resistance group’s Operations Room said in a statement on 23 October.
“The enemy's losses, according to what the Islamic Resistance fighters monitored, amounted to more than 70 dead and more than 600 wounded officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy army,” the statement said.
It adds that 28 Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers, an armed vehicle, and an armored troop carrier were destroyed by the Lebanese resistance.
The toll “does not include the Israeli enemy's losses in military bases, sites and barracks in the north and depth of occupied Palestine.”
The statement confirms that Israeli forces have not been able to establish control over or occupy any villages and that the troops have only been able to advance short distances into southern Lebanese villages, given the intensity of the resistance’s operations.
It detailed several recent operations on the different axes in which the Israeli army is trying to advance into numerous villages.
“The enemy forces attempted to infiltrate towards the town of Taybeh … but our fighters confronted them with machine guns and rockets, resulting in a large number of dead and wounded among the infiltrating force. When an enemy support force attempted to advance to retrieve the casualties, our fighters confronted them, inflicting more losses on them and forcing them to retreat,” Hezbollah said.
Fierce clashes at close range have inflicted heavy losses on Israeli forces, as well as longer-range rocket attacks that target troops as they attempt to advance.
In one incident in which Hezbollah’s fighters ambushed troops in a municipality building in one of the villages, Israeli army evacuation operations took hours due to the resistance repeatedly attacking the rescue forces.
Hezbollah confirmed that its rocket, missile, and drone operations are “gradually increasing day after” on the border and “all the way to the depths of occupied Palestine.”
It also confirmed that precision missiles have recently been used for the first time.
The Israeli army has not released an updated figure of the number of soldiers who have been killed in south Lebanon ground operations. Strict military censorship is also regularly imposed on Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks deep in Israel.
A Hezbollah drone exploded into the window of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Caesarea home on 19 October. Less than a week earlier, at least four Golani Brigade soldiers were killed and dozens wounded when a Hezbollah drone attack hit their military base south of Haifa.