By Wassim Seifeddine
BEIRUT (AA) - Hezbollah said that its fighters targeted Israeli troops in northern Israel with advanced missiles.
The statement followed a series of releases from the group, which has repeatedly claimed to have repelled Israeli forces attempting to infiltrate from various points in southern Lebanon since early October, when Tel Aviv began its ground incursion efforts.
In a series of statements, Hezbollah said its fighters launched advanced missiles –without specifying the type – at a large group of soldiers in the Shatula and Kfar Giladi settlements in northern Israel, hitting them “accurately.”
The group said its forces also “targeted Israeli soldiers in the Avivim settlement in northern Israel with a rocket barrage.”
Hezbollah said it also targeted two Israeli tanks with guided missiles near the border town of Maroun El Ra in southern Lebanon, “setting them ablaze and causing casualties among their crews,” according to the group's statement.
Earlier, the Israeli army said that the two officers and three soldiers, from the Golani Brigade, were killed in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
It said nine other officers and soldiers were severely injured in battles in southern Lebanon and Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday.
The total number of Israeli military fatalities since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, rose to 745, including deaths in Gaza, the West Bank, and northern Israel.
The number of injured has also risen to 4,895 during the same period, according to Israeli army data.
Israel has mounted a huge air campaign in Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,500 people and displacing more than 1 million.
The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,400 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.