BEIRUT: Hezbollah denied on Thursday an Israeli claim that it had killed half of the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s commanders in the south of the country, saying only a handful were slain.
The Lebanese group has been exchanging near-daily fire with the Israeli army since the day after its Palestinian ally Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that “half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated” in the months of cross-border violence sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
“The other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF (Israeli army) operations,” he added, without specifying how many.
A Hezbollah source who spoke on condition of anonymity rejected the claim.
The source told AFP that the number of slain Hezbollah members who “hold a certain level of responsibility does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand.”
The source said Gallant’s claim was “untrue and baseless” and designed to “raise the morale of the collapsed (Israeli) army.”
Israel has frequently claimed to have killed local Hezbollah commanders in targeted strikes, but the group has only confirmed a few were high-level members, referring to the rest as fighters in their statements.
Since October 8, the day after the Hamas attack on southern Israel, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 252 Hezbollah fighters and dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
Both sides have stepped up attacks this week, with Hezbollah increasing rocket fire on military bases, while Gallant said in his latest remarks the army had carried out “offensive action” across southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military also said on Wednesday that it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s south.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has said his group had some 100,000 “trained” and “armed” fighters, but analysts say this number is likely inflated.
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Hezbollah denies Israel claim it killed half of commanders in south
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Hezbollah denies Israel claim it killed half of commanders in south
- The number of slain Hezbollah members who “hold a certain level of responsibility does not exceed the number of fingers on one hand“
- Gallant’s claim was “untrue and baseless”
Fire from Iran, Lebanon triggers sirens across Israel
- Alerts were sounded in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and several other northern regions
- The Israeli army had noticed a gradual decrease in the number of Iranian missiles launched at Israel since Saturday
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it had detected multiple missile barrages from Iran on Wednesday, as well as launches from Lebanon, but added that the number of missiles fired from the Islamic republic at Israel was declining.
AFP journalists heard several blasts and multiple rounds of sirens from Jerusalem, while alerts also sounded in Tel Aviv, central Israel, Haifa and several other northern regions.
“The IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said four times throughout the afternoon and early evening.
In a statement shortly after the first salvo was announced, the military said that “several launches... from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were successfully intercepted” after sirens sounded in central Israel.
The new salvos came on the fifth day of the Middle East war, which began on Saturday with joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Lebanon was dragged into the war on Monday when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group launched an attack on Israel to “avenge” the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting ongoing Israeli air strikes.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Wednesday evening that the army had noticed a gradual decrease in the number of Iranian missiles launched at Israel since the start of the war.
“We are speaking about many dozens the first day going down gradually to a few dozen and very low amounts,” he said.
“The barrages are much smaller. Today, some of them weren’t even a barrage, they were just one missile,” he added.
Shoshani said that some projectiles were launched from Iraq too, where some militias act as Iran proxies.
“We’ve seen small amounts of fire coming from Iraq, mostly UAVs (drones), but the vast majority of fire is from Iran and now from Hezbollah,” he said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services said they had evacuated to hospital two people in central Israel with mild injuries, including “a man of about 30 with shrapnel wounds and another casualty with blast injuries.”
Police said in a statement that officers were dispatched to five locations in the Jerusalem area “where various intercepted projectiles had fallen, causing only damage.”
The military said that the “majority of the launches” from Lebanon were intercepted.
Not including Wednesday’s figures, MDA said that since the start of the war its teams had provided medical treatment to 414 casualties including “10 fatalities, 2 seriously injured, 6 moderately injured and 396 lightly injured.”
AFP journalists heard several blasts and multiple rounds of sirens from Jerusalem, while alerts also sounded in Tel Aviv, central Israel, Haifa and several other northern regions.
“The IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said four times throughout the afternoon and early evening.
In a statement shortly after the first salvo was announced, the military said that “several launches... from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were successfully intercepted” after sirens sounded in central Israel.
The new salvos came on the fifth day of the Middle East war, which began on Saturday with joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Lebanon was dragged into the war on Monday when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group launched an attack on Israel to “avenge” the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prompting ongoing Israeli air strikes.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Wednesday evening that the army had noticed a gradual decrease in the number of Iranian missiles launched at Israel since the start of the war.
“We are speaking about many dozens the first day going down gradually to a few dozen and very low amounts,” he said.
“The barrages are much smaller. Today, some of them weren’t even a barrage, they were just one missile,” he added.
Shoshani said that some projectiles were launched from Iraq too, where some militias act as Iran proxies.
“We’ve seen small amounts of fire coming from Iraq, mostly UAVs (drones), but the vast majority of fire is from Iran and now from Hezbollah,” he said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency services said they had evacuated to hospital two people in central Israel with mild injuries, including “a man of about 30 with shrapnel wounds and another casualty with blast injuries.”
Police said in a statement that officers were dispatched to five locations in the Jerusalem area “where various intercepted projectiles had fallen, causing only damage.”
The military said that the “majority of the launches” from Lebanon were intercepted.
Not including Wednesday’s figures, MDA said that since the start of the war its teams had provided medical treatment to 414 casualties including “10 fatalities, 2 seriously injured, 6 moderately injured and 396 lightly injured.”
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