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The deaths on Wednesday made it one of the most lethal days for the Israeli military since it invaded Lebanon last month to battle Hezbollah fighters.
Nov. 14, 2024, 6:05 a.m. ET
The Israeli military issued new evacuation warnings on Thursday for four neighborhoods in the Dahiya, a densely populated area near Beirut that has been a frequent target of its airstrikes, a day after it said six Israeli soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon.
Avichai Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, warned residents of the neighborhoods to leave their homes. In a social media post in Arabic, he advised them to stay 500 meters away from specific buildings against which he said the military “will operate in the near future.”
The Israeli military gave no details of how the six soldiers were killed on Wednesday, one of the deadliest days for Israeli forces since they invaded southern Lebanon last month to battle Hezbollah fighters. The killings showed that the Iran-backed militant group remained a deadly adversary despite Israel inflicting severe blows. Since the invasion began, Israel has assassinated most of Hezbollah’s leaders and killed and maimed thousands of rank-and-file members, while launching airstrikes that have displaced almost a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
The offensive began after almost a year of near-daily cross-border rocket attacks by Hezbollah and Israel that also forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in northern Israel. Hezbollah began firing on Israel the day after the Hamas-led terror attack last October, and said its bombardment was a sign of solidarity with its Gaza-based ally.
On Thursday, Israel’s military said it had killed a large number of Hezbollah fighters over the past week and had “struck and dismantled” more than 140 Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.