Hezbollah announced that it had repelled Israeli infiltration attempts into Lebanese territory and destroyed 3 Merkava tanks with guided missiles, while the Israeli army acknowledged the killing of 8 soldiers - including 3 officers - after they crossed the border.

Hezbollah said it destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with guided missiles as they advanced toward the town of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon, noting that its fighters were engaged in ongoing clashes with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns with an Israeli force that had infiltrated east of the town.

The party added that its fighters detonated an explosive device at an Israeli infantry force that infiltrated a house in the vicinity of the town of Kafr Kila, killing and wounding several.

His fighters also targeted a gathering of Israeli forces in the orchards of Matla, achieving direct hits.

The party said that its forces targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers between the settlements of Maskafam and Kfar Giladi with rockets and hit it directly, and they also targeted another gathering of soldiers in the settlement of Abiriim with a rocket salvo.

He added that he killed and wounded Israeli soldiers by targeting their gathering between the town of Adaisseh and the settlement of Misgav Am, adjacent to the southern Lebanese border, with a missile directed against individuals.

Israeli dead

On the other hand, Israeli Channel 12 reported that 8 soldiers - including 3 officers - were killed in two battles with Hezbollah and 35 others were injured after being ambushed by Hezbollah fighters after they attempted to infiltrate towns in southern Lebanon.

For its part, the Israeli Ziv Medical Center said that it received today 39 injured soldiers who arrived by helicopters and military ambulances.

The army said two captains were killed in the fighting, including Harel Ettinger, a team commander in the Egoz commando formation unit.

Earlier on Wednesday, the army announced the death of its first captain during an attempted ground incursion into southern Lebanon, bringing the death toll to 8.

Channel 13 reported that an initial army investigation revealed that dozens of Hezbollah fighters attacked soldiers in the battles, which led to the deaths of a number of them.

This comes after the Israeli army announced today that regular infantry and armored units have joined the ground operations in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah missiles

On the other hand, the Israeli army said that 102 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel during the evening hours today, after it had said earlier that about 40 rockets were fired towards the Upper Galilee, noting that it intercepted some of them.

Hezbollah said that it targeted a gathering of Israeli enemy forces between Adaisseh and Maskaf Am with a guided missile, killing and wounding its members.

The party added that its fighters "confronted an enemy helicopter with a surface-to-air missile in the airspace of the Beit Hillel settlement" adjacent to the Lebanese border, which led to its immediate departure.

He pointed out that he targeted "a gathering of enemy forces" in the Ya'ara settlement with a large missile salvo.

Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that a second salvo of rockets was fired from southern Lebanon towards Israeli positions in the Galilee, and air raid sirens sounded in several towns in the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, and southern Golan.

The correspondent pointed out that Israeli interceptor missiles exploded in the airspace of border towns in southern Lebanon.

Deaths in Israeli raids

On the Lebanese level, 7 people - including paramedics - were killed today, Wednesday, in an Israeli bombardment that targeted a health center and clinic in the town of Aitaroun, south of Lebanon.

The official Lebanese News Agency reported that the Israeli army committed a massacre in the town of Aitaroun, killing 6 of the town’s residents and paramedics from the Islamic Health Authority, in addition to one missing person (who is being searched for in order to retrieve his body).

Al Jazeera correspondent said that Israeli raids targeted the towns of Toulin and Al-Jbeen in southern Lebanon.

Since September 23, Israel has launched the most violent and extensive attack on Lebanon since the beginning of the confrontations with Hezbollah about a year ago, which resulted, until Wednesday morning, in no less than 1,073 deaths - including children and women - and 2,955 wounded, and more than a million displaced.

Since October 8, 2023, Lebanese and Palestinian factions in Lebanon - most notably Hezbollah - have been exchanging daily shelling with the Israeli army across the Blue Line, resulting in a total of no less than 1,873 deaths - including children and women - and 9,134 wounded, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

These factions demand an end to the war of extermination that Israel has been waging with broad American support on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, which has left more than 138,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded - most of them children and women - and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and a deadly famine, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.