Six Israeli Soldiers Killed in South Lebanon Fight After Escalation Announced

Israel’s military announced Wednesday that six of their soldiers were killed and one was wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon. They were fighting in a yet-unnamed village with four Hezbollah members. They added that the four Hezbollah fighters were “eventually” killed as well.

Israel’s newly appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz announced shortly before that announced casualties that his country will further expand their ground invasion of Lebanon. This also comes amid growing international efforts to secure a ceasefire.

Katz suggested a ceasefire was unlikely though, saying that Israel would oppose any deal that didn’t include Israel’s right to continue acting militarily against “any terrorist organization” and would also oppose any deal that didn’t totally disarm Hezbollah.

French FM Jean-Noel Barrot, who held ceasefire talks with Israeli officials last week, also said that the Israeli position is that they want absolute freedom to continue to strike Lebanese territory even after the ceasefire is agreed to.

Two weeks ago, a leaked draft of a US proposal for a ceasefire included similar guarantees for Israel, that they would be allowed to keep striking Lebanon as they felt a need to under the “ceasefire” deal. That proposal also sought to give the US broad enforcement power of a deal which would force the disarmament of Hezbollah and see Lebanese troops deployed into the south in their place.

Any “ceasefire” that doesn’t actually cease the firing is probably going to be rejected by Lebanon. That could result in the international community blaming Lebanon for the failure, though the war was launched by Israel and wasn’t meant to be against the Lebanese government in the first place.