Eight Israeli soldiers were killed Wednesday in a series of clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.
Five members of a commando unit were killed and five others were seriously wounded in a gun fight with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village, The Times of Israel reported.
One member of the engineering corps and another two members of a reconnaissance unit were also killed Wednesday.
Hezbollah earlier on Wednesday claimed to have killed a “large number” of Israeli soldiers in three different villages in southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly released a video message sending his condolences to the families of those killed and pledging to win the conflict.
“We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us. This will not happen — because we will stand together, and with God’s help — we will win together,” he said.
In a separate statement, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that “ensuring the continuation of our life in our country involves paying a heavy blood price.”
“Our deep commitment is to continue doing everything necessary to protect the homeland and achieve our goals,” Gallant said.
The deaths are the first major casualties for the Israeli military since Israel launched its ground incursion into Lebanon late Monday evening — the largest such conflict between the two countries since its 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006. That war ended partly due to Israeli troops suffering steep casualties, with a total of 121 soldiers killed.
The ground invasion follows heavy airstrikes from Israel across Lebanon in the past several weeks, killing more than 1,000 people including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several other top officials. Up until then, the Lebanese militia group had clashed with Israel at its southern border in support of its fellow Iranian proxy Hamas.
Israel says its main goal for the fighting is to push back Hezbollah and clear the way for displaced settlers to return to the border area.
Israel’s aggression prompted Iran, a backer of Hezbollah, to launch nearly 200 missiles toward Israel Tuesday. Both Israel and its largest ally the United States have vowed severe consequences for the action.
“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” Israel’s military chief, Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi, said in a video message Wednesday. “We have the capability to reach and strike every location in the Middle East and those of our enemies who have not yet understood this, will understand this soon.”