Number of IDF fatalities climbing steadily as five more soldiers killed in past 24 hours

Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in battles in southern Lebanon. Another 10 soldiers were injured, including one seriously. The IDF said at least 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed during the fighting yesterday.

The name of one of the soldiers killed Monday night in fighting near the village of Debel in the central sector, Staff Sergeant Philip Mosko, was released yesterday. Mosko, a paramedic attached to the paratroops and Engineering Corps personnel operating in the area, was killed by an anti-tank shell fired at the APC in which he was riding. Another five soldiers were slightly wounded in the attack.

Early yesterday morning, Captain Gilad Balachsan, 29, of Carmiel, and a reservist from the infantry battalion of the northern border brigade, were killed on the outskirts of Bint Jbail in the eastern sector. The reservist's name has yet to be released. Another soldier was seriously wounded in the same incident.

Two paratroopers from the regular army's Paratroop Brigade reconnaissance battalion were also killed at Bint Jbail yesterday. Another reconnaissance paratrooper suffered a severe head injury early yesterday. He was treated in the field, but could not be evacuated due to heavy Hezbollah fire. Rescue forces were sent in, and another soldier from the paratroops' engineering company was killed in the rescue attempt.

A soldier from the regular army Armored Brigade was wounded before dawn yesterday between the village of Aaitaroun and Bint Jbail. He was evacuated in serious condition, but later improved. His injury is now classified as slight.

The IDF reported that dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed in yesterday's fighting, some 30 in the western sector alone. Five Hezbollah men surrendered to a reservist force and were taken prisoner. The IDF estimates that the number of Hezbollah fighters killed in the past four weeks at about 480. Intelligence has a list of 200 names of Hezbollah fighters killed.

In addition, nine Katyusha launchers were destroyed over the past 24 hours in the western sector. IDF special forces operating in the area of Mansoura, south of Tyre, destroyed another 11 launchers. The air force yesterday attacked hundreds of targets in Lebanon, mostly in the south.

Brigadier General Shuki Shachrur, head of the reserves headquarters in the Northern Command, said yesterday that the renewed entry to the northern part of Bint Jbail, where four of the five soldiers were killed yesterday, was based on intelligence indicating the presence of Hezbollah units there. "That's exactly the system," Shachrur said. "You get in and get out, and try to confuse the enemy." He conceded that "our main problem is the continued firing of short-range Katyushas, up to 25 kilometers." He said the IDF had hit about 40 percent of Hezbollah's Katyushas and about 70 percent of its long-range rocket-launching capability.