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On October 24 and October 25, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the names of 13 Israeli soldiers killed in several days of fighting. Ten soldiers were killed in clashes in southern Lebanon and three in Gaza. The losses come amid Hezbollah rocket fire that killed two Israeli civilians on October 25 in the town of Majd al-Krum.
The most recent casualties are among other difficult losses for Israel in fighting on two fronts. Israeli Major General Ahsan Daksa, the commander of the 401st Armored Brigade, was killed fighting in Gaza less than a week ago. The losses illustrate Israel’s challenges, and the deadly capabilities Hamas and Hezbollah continue to possess.
The IDF’s losses in Lebanon affected two brigades. Four soldiers from the 2nd Carmeli Reserve Infantry Brigade fell in battle against Hezbollah, the IDF said on October 24. The Israeli military also said on October 24 that a member of the elite Oketz Unit, which pairs soldiers with dogs as part of counter-terrorism operations, was killed in Lebanon. On October 25, the IDF said that five soldiers from the 8th Armored Reserve Brigade, a unit nicknamed “hazaken” or the “old one,” had also fallen in Lebanon. Later in the day, the Israeli military added that three soldiers in a tank commander’s course of the 460th Brigade had been killed in northern Gaza.
The deaths took place amid a number of other soldiers being wounded in Lebanon, including members of the Paratroopers Brigade and the 7th Armored Brigade. “The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment, their families have been notified,” the IDF said. The IDF didn’t specify the precise circumstances under which Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded, or where the incidents took place. However, the losses appear to be among the worst toll in any 48-hour period since the ground operation against Hezbollah began on October 1. Seven soldiers were killed in one battle on the first day of the ground operation.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari provided a summation of recent Israeli operations in southern Lebanon. He said that near Labbouneh, which is on the Israeli border near the Mediterranean Sea, Hezbollah “built an underground network of combat zones where it stored various weapons.” The IDF has worked to clear this area over the last month of fighting. In Mhaibib, which is further east near the Israeli border community of Yiftah, Hezbollah also built an underground command center, Hagari said. “In the past month alone, we have struck more than 3,200 targets in southern Lebanon, including approximately 350 weapons storage facilities,” he said. He also stated Israel had “seized more than 3,200 explosives and approximately 2,500 anti-tank missiles, RPGs, launchers, and Kornet missiles.”
The battles in Lebanon continued on October 25. The IDF said it struck another 200 targets between October 24 and 25. One of the strikes eliminated “Abbas Adnan Moslem, the Commander of the Aitaroun area in Hezbollah’s Radwan unit,” the IDF said. In another incident, the Israeli Air Force struck a Hezbollah drone unit.
While visiting Israeli troops in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on October 24 that “in the north, there’s a possibility of reaching a sharp conclusion. We thoroughly dismantled Hezbollah’s senior chain of command.” He made this optimistic prediction when he visited the 162nd Division operating in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. Halevi met with Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, the division’s commander.
Halevi praised the troops for the recent weeks of fighting in Jabaliya and noted that the IDF had boosted forces in the area over the recent holidays in Israel. Israel celebrated Simchat Torah on October 23–24 and the Sukkot holiday over the last week.
“Determination and persistence—that’s the key. Now, they [the enemy] are determined too, but we are much more. Because we are better, we are more justified, and also because we are stronger. Another achievement—Jabaliya is falling, this is another psychological collapse,” Halevi said. He said pressure on Hamas would bring Israel closer to “more achievements” and mentioned the recent killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, but didn’t provide an assessment of how it might change the war in Gaza.
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