Adviser to Israeli finance minister injured in Lebanon clashes

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – An adviser to Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was injured in clashes in southern Lebanon, according to Israeli media on Wednesday.

Smotrich's adviser, who is a reserve soldier in the army's Alexandroni Brigade, was wounded but was in good health condition, Israeli Channel 12 reported.

It, however, didn't reveal his name, or when he was injured.

The Israeli army has deployed four army divisions for its ongoing ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said early Wednesday that three soldiers were seriously injured in clashes in southern Lebanon.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,250 people, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 2,119 people have since been killed and 10,019 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar