At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed and several others were injured during clashes with Hezbollah fighters on Tuesday, October 1, and Wednesday, October 2, as part of Israel’s cross-border ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
Speaking to journalists, Hezbollah Media Relations Officer Mohammad Afif confirmed on Wednesday that heavy losses have been inflicted among the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) as they were trapped in Hezbollah’s ambushes, while trying to infiltrate into Southern Lebanon. “Our forces are fully prepared to engage with the enemy, and what happened in Maroun al-Ras, Adaisseh, and Mesgav Am was just the beginning,” Afif said, noting that Israel is imposing strict media blackout on the number of casualties among its forces and the impact from missile attacks.
Hezbollah-run news network Al Manar also reported that the Lebanese resistance group destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided missiles on Wednesday, as they were advancing toward the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon. Whereas, Hezbollah air defenses confronted an Israeli helicopter over the settlement of Beit Hillel in northern Israel, forcing it to retreat and preventing other helicopters from flying over the region.
As Israel decided to further expand the war with Gaza’s Lebanese support front on the north, it remained apparently determined to escalate with Iran and drag the region into a large-scale war. On Wednesday, the IOF confirmed that several air force bases were damaged in the retaliatory missile attack which Iran launched against Israel the night before, with no personnel, combat equipment or aircrafts hit in the attack.
The attack reportedly did not leave casualties among Israeli people, and did not cause major damage to Israeli sites, yet IOF’s Chief of staff Lieutenant general Herzi Halevi stated on Wednesday that the Israeli military would respond to the Iranian attack and that it has the capability to “reach and strike any point in the Middle East”. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Iran’s attack as a “big mistake” and that Iran would “pay for it”.
Israeli officials informed American news website Axios on Wednesday that Israel may respond to the Iranian attack within days and that the targets would be oil and gas production facilities, nuclear sites and air defense systems inside Iran. Media reports also have predicted that Israel may carry out targeted assassinations of Iranian officials as well.
With its insistence to respond to Iran’s attacks, Israel deliberately ignored all international calls for deescalation and ceasefire, the last of which was stated by the United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres after Iran launched its attack on Israel. Guterres condemned the escalation in the region in a brief statement that he wrote on his account on X on Tuesday, October 1. “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation”, Guterres said. He also urged that the escalations “must stop,” and called for a ceasefire.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reacted to the United Nations Secretary-General’s statement by declaring him “persona non grata”, which means banning the United Nations’ Chief from entering Israel. Katz said that he made this decision because of Guterres’s statement “in which he failed to mention Iran by name and did not unequivocally condemn its grave aggression.”
Instead, Israel continued to attack civilians across the region on Wednesday with a new aerial aggression on a residential building in Mazzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The aggression left at least three people killed, and it took place one day after another Israeli airstrike hit Mazzeh, killing six people. Israeli air and ground attacks also continued to target different parts of Lebanon and Gaza on Wednesday, killing dozens of people including women and children.
