Israel fights Hezbollah in Lebanon, vows to respond to Iran’s missiles : NPR

Israeli troops battled Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and fended off their rockets into Israel on Wednesday, even as Israel carried out airstrikes in Gaza and vowed a “painful” response for Iran’s Tuesday night missile strikes on Israel.

The Israeli military said eight of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, in its first reports of losses in combat against the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since Israel launched its ground offensive there late Monday. Reuters cited Hezbollah as saying it also destroyed three Israeli tanks in Maroun El-Ras, Lebanon.

The ground incursion followed two weeks of Israeli strikes across Lebanon have killed more than 1,030 people, including 87 children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

As the fighting mounted, the United Nations Security Council met in New York amid global fears of a wider war.

All these developments came within days of the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people in Israel, setting off Israel’s expanding military campaigns on multiple fronts.

Health officials in Gaza told NPR at least 115 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.

Israel vows to respond to Iran’s missile strike

Iran fired about 180 missiles toward Israel late Tuesday. The Israeli military said most were intercepted, with help from the U.S., but there were several hits.

There was one confirmed death from the Iranian attack: a 38-year-old Palestinian man in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian civil defense.

Video footage shared on social media showed a large crater where a missile had landed near Israel’s Mossad spy agency headquarters.

Officials in Jordan reported there were some minor injuries when shrapnel fell in the country, a U.S. ally, which is located between Israel and Iran.

Israel has promised a strong response.

“This evening, Iran made a big mistake — and it will pay for it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said hours after the attack.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari called Iran’s attack “a severe and dangerous escalation,” and promised, “We will respond wherever, whenever and however we choose.” On Wednesday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the response will be ”decisive and painful.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said late Tuesday that the missile attack was in response to several recent killings, including the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah late Friday in Beirut; the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in July in a strike widely assumed to be carried out by Israel; and an Iranian commander.

Iran’s mission at the United Nations said the attack was a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime.”

This is a developing story that will be updated.

Aya Batrawy contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.