from MintPress News:
On Oct. 1, Israel announced a limited ground invasion in southern Lebanon. Now, a month and roughly 100 soldier casualties later, Israeli officials appear to be searching for an exit, insisting that their goals have been fulfilled.
At the outset, Israeli officials described the ground invasion as “limited, localized, and targeted,” with the stated aim of neutralizing Hezbollah’s ability to fire on northern Israeli settlements. Yet, within days, Tel Aviv mobilized four additional divisions along the southern Lebanon border, signaling a clear escalation in its military engagement.
By late December, Israel’s assassination operations had reportedly decimated much of Hezbollah’s senior leadership—alongside hundreds of civilians caught in the crossfire. Even so, Reuters and other media outlets reported that the Lebanese resistance group managed to re-establish its command just weeks later.
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By mid-October, the Israeli military was still struggling to break through the Lebanese border area, hampered by a series of persistent setbacks. Israeli forces faced relentless shelling along their supply routes, fell into ambushes, and encountered numerous booby traps. Andreas Krieg from the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London noted that Israel “has not made the progress that I expected them to make in 16 days, which suggests that it is far more difficult. There is certainly more fierce resistance than Israelis initially expected.”
On Oct. 28, Hezbollah’s “Operations Room” issued a communiqué claiming its forces had confirmed the deaths of at least 90 Israeli soldiers and officers. The statement also reported that at least 750 had been wounded, and 38 of Israel’s renowned Merkava tanks had been destroyed. These figures, Hezbollah asserted, apply solely to the casualties and losses inflicted on Israeli forces operating within Lebanese territory.
