Israeli military casualties mount to nine amid intensifying clashes with Hezbollah while Defense Minister Israel Katz says that Israel plans to maintain control over southern Lebanon up to the Litani River after the war.
Three soldiers were killed during clashes in southern Lebanon. Israel later added that a fourth was killed and two others wounded, including one in critical condition.
This brings the total number of Israeli military fatalities on the Lebanese front to nine since Feb. 28., according toThe Jerusalem Post.
Israeli forces continue their operations in southern Lebanon, aiming to isolate the area south of the Litani River. The army also announced the "arrest" and transfer of a man to Israel for interrogation, claiming he was “terrorist monitoring Israeli forces.”
The Israeli military said it had killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and destroyed weapons and infrastructure belonging to the group, noting that more than 700 projectiles had been fired at Hezbollah targets in recent days.
The army also issued an “urgent” evacuation warning to several villages in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, instructing residents to head toward the town of Qaraoun, about 30 kilometers north of Israel.
In a statement following a security assessment, Katz said Israeli forces would establish a buffer zone inside southern Lebanon and retain control over the area up to the Litani River after the conflict with Hezbollah ends, describing it as a “security zone,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
“All the houses in the villages near the border in Lebanon will be demolished in accordance with the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to remove once and for all the threats near the border from the residents of the north,” Katz said in a televised statement.
Katz added that Israeli forces would eliminate Hezbollah’s Radwan forces that had infiltrated the area and destroy all remaining weapons. He further stated that more than 600,000 displaced Lebanese would be prevented from returning south of the Litani River until the safety of northern Israeli residents is ensured.
For its part, Hezbollah said in three separate statements that it had targeted a Merkava tank on the road between the towns of Qantara and Taybeh in southern Lebanon, a military post in the settlement of Misgav Am, and air defense systems in the settlement of Ma’alot-Tarshiha.
Lebanese media reported that Israeli warplanes carried out strikes on several southern towns on Tuesday morning, while cases of suffocation were recorded among civil defense and Red Cross personnel following a chlorine leak caused by an airstrike on a water station in Marjayoun.
Two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the Qasmiyeh area, two others in a strike on Deir Kifa, and another in a strike on his home in Aabba.
According to the latest figures from Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon between March 2 and March 30 has reached 1,247, with 3,680 others injured.
