Israel presses forward on two fronts and reports 8 combat deaths

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel pressed forward on two fronts Wednesday, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. As Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack a day earlier, the region braced for further escalation. Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and the Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip, launched dozens of missiles into Israel on Tuesday night, another escalation in a tit-for-tat cycle that is pushing the Middle East closer to a regional war. Israel warned that the attack would have “repercussions.” The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two Hezbollah attacks in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, without elaborating. Together, the deaths announced on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, were some of the biggest casualties sustained by Israeli forces in months. In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong war that triggered the widening conflict rages with no end in sight, Israeli ground and air operations in the territory’s second-largest city of Khan Younis killed at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said. And late Wednesday night, an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building near the Lebanese capital’s city center, the second time Israel has struck central Beirut this week. AP AUDIO: Israel battles militants on two fronts and reports 8 combat deaths as fears of a wider war mount AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on funerals for an Israeli commando and, in Sidon, victims of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the attack, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using internationally banned phosphorous bombs. The latest actions on multiple fronts have raised fears of a wider conflict that could draw in Iran as well as the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel. Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Damascus on Wednesday evening, killing three people and wounding at least three others. Hezbollah says its fighters clashed with Israeli troops Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful Iranian-armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The Israeli military said ground forces backed by airstrikes killed militants in “close-range engagements,” without saying where. In June, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in central Gaza, the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces since the Israel-Hamas war erupted almost a year ago. The Israeli military warned people in 50 Lebanese villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals. “Many people are thought to be under the rubble, and no one can retrieve them.” Israel carried out a weekslong offensive earlier this year in Khan Younis that left much of the city in ruins. On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack in southern Israel and took around 250 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians but says more than half were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Iran fires missiles to avenge attacks on militant allies Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for the devastating blows Israel landed recently against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began in solidarity with Hamas. The Israeli military said it intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern Israel. Several landed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing a Palestinian man. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, saying Iran “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.” U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of Israel and that he’s discussing with aides what the appropriate response should be. Iran said it fired the missiles as retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and its own paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was killed in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/7d93f71b7894177b4f9c303671ee55de