Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed and a number of others wounded in three exchanges with Hezbollah in heavy fighting inside Lebanon.
The largest group of soldiers, from the commando brigade and including an officer, was involved in a clash with Hezbollah in a village north of the Israeli border community of Misgav Am, while two other soldiers from the Golani brigade were killed in a separate incident.
Claims of significant losses had been circulating since early on Wednesday when Hezbollah had said it had inflicted casualties on a group of Israeli soldiers attempting to assault the Lebanese village of Odaisseh, not far from the border.
The casualties in the second incident appear to have taken place in the neighbourhood of Maroun-el-Ras. Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device.
Hezbollah also claimed it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided rockets in the Lebanese border town of Maroun el-Ras.
The Guardian was unable to verify the circumstances of any of the incidents.
Later, Beilinson hospital in central Israel said it was treating five of the wounded soldiers.
The deaths appeared to signify the first substantial clashes between Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and Hezbollah since Israel said it had initiated a limited ground incursion into Lebanon to target Hezbollah’s infrastructure along the border, and came as Israel announced it was deploying additional forces to the fight in southern Lebanon.
About an hour before the announcement of the combat deaths, the IDF said soldiers from the 36th armoured division had also entered operations in Lebanon joining forces from the 98th division already operating in the border area.
Confirmation of the losses followed reports that Israeli military medical evacuation helicopters had been seen removing the wounded from areas close to the border.
The relatively high number of casualties in a short space of time on Wednesday has underscored how difficult fighting in Lebanon’s southern border villages is likely to be, and brings back memories of the challenges faced by Israel fighting in the same area in 2006 during the second Lebanon war.
Despite Israel’s much trumpeted successes in targeting Hezbollah’s senior personnel, including the general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah, and its command and communication networks, Israeli troops are now confronting Hezbollah in its home villages in the south, where it has experience of operating for decades in well-prepared positions and where small groups of fighters are able to operate independently.
Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.
The Lebanese army said Israeli forces had advanced 400 metres across the border and withdrew “after a short period”, its first confirmation of the incursion.
The Israeli military has warned people in about 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, about 37 miles (60km) from the border and much further than the northern edge of a UN-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.