As escalating Israeli strikes are killing a growing number of civilians across Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued returning fire against Israeli military targets along the border area. Today, 10 rockets were fired at an artillery battalion in Neot Mordechai in the Galilee Panhandle of northern Israel.
The result of the strike was one Israeli reservist killed, and three others were wounded severely. The Israeli military issued a statement confirming the incident. The slain reservist was from Tel Aviv.
Along with this death, fighting inside southern Lebanon left the deputy commander of the Alon Brigade’s 9308th Battalion was killed. It was not immediately reported where in southern Lebanon the fighting took place, as Israel’s invasion is spanning much of the border area.
Though Israel is sustaining relatively small numbers of casualties compared to Lebanon, especially if one factors in the thousands of civilians killed, they have continued to encounter resistance when trying to force their way into Lebanese territory. Last week five Israeli soldiers were reported killed in fighting near Ramia.
A lot of those casualties are coming from Hezbollah’s rocket fire against military positions in northern Israel, and anti-tank missiles fired against incoming Israeli Merkava battle tanks, two of which were also reported destroyed in an incident last week.
The US has been pressing Israel to scale back attacks on Lebanon, citing the unacceptably high civilian death toll. There is no indication that is even being contemplated, however, and if anything the number of attacks against civilian targets far from the Lebanese border seems to be growing.
