Eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and two others were kidnapped in a series of Hezbollah assaults on the northern border yesterday. Another five soldiers and five civilians were wounded in the attacks.
Israel responded with massive aerial attacks on targets throughout Lebanon.
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The fighting began at about 9:00 A.M., when a group of reserve soldiers in two armored jeeps was conducting a routine patrol of the border. As the jeeps passed between Moshav Zarit and Moshav Shtula, Hezbollah attacked.
An initial inquiry revealed that the Hezbollah operatives had crossed the border earlier via a "dead zone" in the border fence not visible from any of the IDF lookout posts. There are dozens of similar "dead zones" along the northern border, though the IDF said that lookout cameras to cover this particular spot were due to be installed next week. The assailants may have used a wheeled ladder to climb over the fence.
The operatives hid themselves in an overgrown wadi about 200 meters on the Israeli side of the fence and waited until the IDF troops arrived, whereupon they attacked, apparently with a combination of explosives and antitank missiles.
Three soldiers were killed during the initial assault, while one soldier was seriously wounded, another lightly wounded and a third suffered a shrapnel scratch. In addition, the assailants kidnapped two soldiers, whose medical condition is unknown. According to the IDF, Hezbollah probably had an escape vehicle waiting on the other side of the fence. The entire incident took no more than 10 minutes, and the Israeli soldiers apparently never fired a shot.
Ambush and diversionary attack
Simultaneously with this ambush, Hezbollah also launched a diversionary attack: a barrage of mortar shells and Katyusha rockets on communities and IDF outposts in the western part of the border area. That assault wounded five civilians, though none seriously: Some were lightly wounded, and the others suffered from shock.
As soon as this barrage began, the Galilee Division conducted a routine check to ensure that all army outposts and vehicles were still in contact with headquarters, and quickly discovered that contact had been lost with the two jeeps patrolling near Zarit. Both jeeps had been damaged in the Hezbollah assault. A rescue force was summoned to the scene, and when it arrived, about half an hour after the attack, it found the two damaged jeeps and the dead and wounded soldiers. The rescue force soon realized that two of the soldiers had been kidnapped and sent out an alert.
Due in part to the lessons learned from the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit less than three weeks earlier, a force of tanks and armored personnel carriers was immediately sent into Lebanon in hot pursuit. It was during this pursuit, at about 11:00 A.M., that the second deadly incident occurred: A Merkava tank drove over a powerful bomb, containing an estimated 200 to 300 kilograms of explosives, about 70 meters north of the border fence. The tank was almost completely destroyed, and all four crew members were killed instantly.
Over the next several hours, IDF soldiers waged a fierce fight against Hezbollah gunmen as the soldiers tried to extricate the damaged tank, in order to recover the bodies and to keep Hezbollah from stealing it. During the course of this battle, at about 3:00 P.M., another soldier was killed and two were lightly wounded. As of press time last night, however, the tank had still not been extracted.
Due to the force of the bomb, only bits and pieces of the soldiers' bodies are likely to be found inside.
The damaged tank did not have armored plating on its belly; most tanks with such protection are stationed on the Gaza border. However, tank officers said that due to the size of the bomb, such plating would still not have saved the soldiers' lives.
The fighting continued throughout the day, with Hezbollah gunmen repeatedly trying to attack army outposts along the border. At the Oranit outpost near Rosh Hanikra, soldiers killed one Hezbollah operative; other Hezbollah gunmen were apparently killed during an assault on the Dvoranit outpost. The IDF suffered no casualties during these battles.
In response to the Hezbollah onslaught, the IDF attacked dozens of targets throughout Lebanon, including Hezbollah outposts and several bridges over the Awali River. According to the IDF, all Hezbollah outposts along the border were destroyed. The bombing, which included targets in central and northern Lebanon, apparently caused multiple Lebanese casualties.
According to GOC Northern Command Udi Adam, the IDF had no intelligence warnings of the Hezbollah attack. After Shalit was kidnapped, he said, the army decided to up the alert level in the north for fear of a similar attack, but a few days ago, the alert was lowered again.
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