5 soldiers killed in south Lebanon; IDF: 3,200 Hezbollah targets struck in past month
IDF chief says Hezbollah’s senior command ‘thoroughly finished’; strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs after more than 120 rockets fired at northern Israel
Four Israeli reserve troops were killed and six others were wounded during a clash with Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon, the IDF said, and a soldier from the Oketz canine unit was killed on Thursday amid the ground offensive against the Iran-backed terror group.
In Israel, Hezbollah rocket fire from Lebanon continued unabated throughout the day as Jews observed the Simhat Torah holiday, a usually joyous occasion muted this year by the first Hebrew anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught.
The slain IDF reservists were named as:
- Warrant Officer (res.) Mordechai Haim Amoyal, 42, from Lod.
- Sgt. Maj. (res.) Shmuel Harari, 35, from Safed.
- Master Sgt. (res.) Shlomo Aviad Nayman, 31, from Mitzpe Yeriho.
- Sgt. First Class (res.) Shuvael Ben-Natan, 22, from Rehelim.
They all served with the Carmeli Brigade’s 222nd Battalion.
According to an initial IDF probe of the deadly incident on Wednesday, several Hezbollah operatives emerged from a tunnel and hurled grenades at the troops. The soldiers returned fire, but it remained unclear as of Thursday night how many operatives were hit.
Among the six soldiers injured in the incident, three were listed in serious condition.
The announcement made Wednesday one of the deadliest days of Israel’s offensive in southern Lebanon.
The IDF said that on Thursday, Sgt. First Class Gai Ben-Haroosh, 23, from Pardes Hanna-Karkur, was also killed during fighting in southern Lebanon.
He was a commander in the Oketz canine unit.
A reservist with the 55th Paratroopers Brigade’s 7155th Battalion was seriously wounded in the same incident.
In separate incidents on Thursday, the IDF said an officer with with the 7th Armored Brigade’s 75th Battalion was seriously wounded in an anti-tank guided missile attack; and an officer with 226th Paratroopers Brigade’s 6226th Battalion was seriously wounded by shrapnel.
The wounded soldiers were all evacuated to hospitals for medical treatment.
Strikes hit Beirut for second consecutive night
The ground offensive of the past month has been carried out in tandem with airstrikes targeting Hezbollah figures and infrastructure across southern Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, in eastern Lebanon and Beirut.
Lebanon state media said on Thursday night that strikes had again targeted the city’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, after 17 Israeli strikes hit the area the previous night in what was one of the most intensive nights of strikes in the area over the past month.
Around half an hour before the strikes commenced, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee called for Lebanese civilians near two buildings in the southern suburb of Beirut to evacuate.
He published maps alongside the announcement, which called on civilians to distance themselves at least 500 meters from the sites, which the military said belong to Hezbollah.
#عاجل إلى جميع السكان المتواجدين في منطقة الضاحية الجنوبية وتحديدًا في المباني المحددة في الخرائط المرفقة والمباني المجاورة لها في المناطق التالية:
????شويفات العمروسية
????حارة حريك⭕️تتواجدون بالقرب من منشآت ومصالح تابعة لحزب الله حيث سيعمل ضدها جيش الدفاع على المدى الزمني… pic.twitter.com/zHKH6eAznP
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) October 24, 2024
He later called for people to evacuate the area surrounding another three buildings.
“Israeli warplanes launched a new strike a short while ago on the Choueifat area,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said, later also reporting an Israeli air attack on another south Beirut neighborhood.
AFPTV footage showed two plumes of smoke rising from Beirut’s south and AFP correspondents in the Lebanese capital heard two loud bangs about half an hour apart.
Unabated rocket and drone attacks
Meanwhile, more than 120 rockets and several drones were launched at northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday, with one of many barrages causing damage to a residential building in the northern city of Karmiel.
The building appeared to have been directly impacted, although the IDF said that five projectiles fired at the Karmiel area had been downed by air defenses.
Medics said that an 84-year-old man was lightly injured in the attack.
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לפני קצת יותר מחצי שעה שוגרו כ-5 רקטות משטח לבנון לעבר הגליל העליון ומרכז הגליל – זוהתה פגיעה ישירה בכרמיאל. צוותי מד״א מעניקים טיפול רפואי לגבר בן 84 במצב קל שנפגע מרסיסים ולמספר נפגעי חרדה. pic.twitter.com/HD3L43pZNc— Tal Z ????⚜ (@TAL_TALZ) October 24, 2024
Air raid sirens also blared in Nahariya, and explosions could be heard as air defenses intercepted rockets.
Footage showed damage to a car, part of a projectile on the roadside, and a hole in the road where it struck.
At least three drones were also fired at Israel amid the rocket barrages, two of which were intercepted by air defenses.
In one incident, two drones were launched at the Upper Galilee, and one impacted in an open area while the other was shot down. A third drone heading for the Western Galilee was intercepted a short while later.
A member of Hezbollah’s drone unit was killed in an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Thursday, the military said, after he was identified collecting a surveillance drone that had returned to Lebanon after being launched at Israel. It released footage of the incident.
מוקדם יותר היום, כלי טיס של חיל האוויר תקף וסגר מעגל על מחבל מהיחידה האווירית של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה (127) ששיגר כלי טיס בלתי מאויש לעבר שטח מדינת ישראל<< pic.twitter.com/LDhX5k9mKP
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 24, 2024
The IDF also released footage on Thursday of Hezbollah weapons that have been captured over the last month of fighting.
“In the last month alone we have struck over 3,200 targets in southern Lebanon, including 350 weapon depots,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
He said troops had captured some 3,200 explosive devices and some 2,500 anti-tank missiles and RPGs.
Israel launched its ground offensive in Lebanon last month after a year of near-daily attacks carried out by Hezbollah-led forces on Israeli communities and military posts along the border.
It has said several times that it wants the ground operation to be swift as it does not wish to see troops get bogged down in Lebanon, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has indicated that it may soon reach its end.
“In the north, there is a possibility of reaching a sharp end,” he told troops during an assessment in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, in a video distributed by the IDF. “We finished Hezbollah’s senior chain of command in a very thorough way.”
Some 60,000 residents from northern Israel have been internally displaced for the last year, after they were evacuated amid increasing rocket fire and due to fears that Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack to the one committed by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Twenty-nine civilians have been killed by the attacks on northern Israel, while 50 IDF soldiers have died in cross-border skirmishes and the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.
Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
