An Israeli officer and 4 soldiers were killed and 6 others were injured, including two officers who were seriously wounded, in battles in southern Lebanon, while battles continue between the invading forces and Hezbollah elements, with the mutual shelling continuing towards several areas and sites on both sides.

An initial investigation by the Israeli army indicates that the soldiers were killed by bombs thrown by Hezbollah elements after they emerged from a tunnel in a complex area opposite Zarit in the western sector of southern Lebanon.

Three people were injured in a rocket barrage launched from Lebanon that targeted the Nahariya area and its surroundings in the Arab Galilee, while the Lebanese army announced on Thursday the martyrdom of three of its members, including an officer, in an attack launched by the Israeli army on Lebanese army forces in Bint Jbeil while they were evacuating the wounded. This came the day after Israel launched 17 raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, where six buildings were leveled to the ground, as the escalation of aggression against Lebanon entered its second month.

The Israeli air force intensified its raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut, while Hezbollah said that it was able to kill soldiers and wound others in the ground confrontations in southern Lebanon, and stressed in a statement issued last night that the Israeli army "was not able to control any entire village on the front line, despite its repeated attempts to advance towards the Lebanese villages."

In addition, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced the death of 2,574 martyrs and 12,001 wounded since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, noting that the death toll in the past 24 hours reached 28 martyrs and 139 wounded; while rescue teams in various Lebanese regions continue to work to try to rescue those trapped under the rubble of buildings attacked by the Israeli army.