Israel says 8 troops killed amid ground incursion into Lebanon – National

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******* says 8 troops ******* amid ground incursion into Lebanon – National

*******’s ground incursion into Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants left eight ******** soldiers ***** Wednesday, while the region braced for further escalation as ******* vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile ******* a day earlier.

The ******** military said seven soldiers were ******* in two separate attacks, without elaborating. Those deaths followed an earlier announcement of the first ******** combat ****** in Lebanon since the start of the incursion — a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade. Another seven troops, including a combat medic, were wounded.

Together, the assaults were some of the deadliest against ******** forces in months. The announcements came on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the ******* new year.

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0:34
Trudeau on Iran missile *******: ‘We must do everything we can to avoid wider war’

In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong conflict that triggered the widening conflict rages on with no end in sight, ******** ground and air operations in a hard-hit city ******* at least 51 people, including women and children, ************ medical officials said.

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******* has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after ******’ Oct. 7 ******* ignited the conflict.

The escalation on multiple fronts has raised fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East that could further draw in Iran — which backs Hezbollah and ****** — as well as the ******* States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of *******.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said an ******** airstrike hit a residential building in Damascus Wednesday evening, ******** three people and wounding at least three others. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the missile appeared to have targeted the bottom floor of a four-story apartment building.

There was no immediate comment from *******, which frequently strikes targets linked to Iran or allied groups in Syria, but rarely claims the strikes.

Hezbollah says its fighters clashed with ******** troops

Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with ******** troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The ******** military said ground forces backed by airstrikes had ******* militants in “close-range engagements” without saying where.

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******** media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border.

The two attacks announced Wednesday followed other assaults on ******** forces earlier in the year. In June, an ********** in southern Gaza ******* eight ******** soldiers. In January, 21 ******** troops were ******* in a single ******* by ************ militants in central Gaza. the deadliest single ******* on ******** forces since *******-****** conflict erupted.

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2:13
******* has begun ground raids in Lebanon

Hezbollah also said it fired surface-to-air missiles at an ******** military helicopter over Beit Hillel in northern ******* near the border. The group did not say whether the helicopter was hit, and there was no immediate comment from the ******** military.

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The Lebanese army said ******** forces advanced some 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short *******,” its first confirmation of the incursion.

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The ******** military has warned people in and around 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between ******* and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes.

******* has said it will continue striking Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep ******* rockets into ******* until there is a cease-***** in Gaza with ******.

******** strikes have ******* over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, ******* lashed out at the ******* Nations on Wednesday, declaring Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata, or banned from entering the country. ******** Foreign Minister ******* Katz accused him of failing to unequivocally condemn Tuesday night’s Iranian missile *******.

Guterres released a brief statement after the barrage that read: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-*****.”

The move deepens an already wide rift between ******* and the ******* Nations.

Palestinians describe massive raid in Gaza

The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were ******* and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early Wednesday. Records at the ********* Hospital showed seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those *******.

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Another 23 people, including two children, were ******* in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

The ******** military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Residents said ******* had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighborhoods in Khan Younis. Mahmoud al-Razd, who had four relatives among those *******, described heavy destruction and said first responders had struggled to reach destroyed homes.

“The explosions and shelling were massive,” he told The Associated Press. “Many people are thought to be under the rubble, and no one can retrieve them.”

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1:45
Canada abstains from UN vote on *******’s “unlawful presence” in Gaza, West Bank

******* carried out a weekslong offensive earlier this year in Khan Younis that left much of Gaza’s second-largest city in ruins. Over the course of the war, ******** forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza as militants have regrouped.

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On Oct. 7, ******-led militants ******* some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 ********. Some 100 have not yet been released, around 65 of whom are believed to be alive.

*******’s retaliatory offensive has ******* over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says a little more than half were women and children. The military says it has ******* over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Iran fires missiles to avenge attacks on militant allies

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into ******* on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for a series of devastating blows ******* has landed in recent weeks against Hezbollah, which has been ******* rockets into ******* since the conflict in Gaza began in solidarity with ******.

Israelis scrambled for ***** shelters as air-raid sirens sounded and the orange glow of missiles streaked across the night sky.

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The ******** military said it intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern ******* and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel.

Several missiles landed in the ********-occupied West Bank, where one of them ******* a ************ worker from Gaza who had been stranded in the territory since the conflict broke out.

******** Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, saying Iran “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.”

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3:41
******* vows revenge after being bombarded by Iranian missiles

U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of ******* and that he’s discussing with aides what the appropriate response should be.

However, Biden said he wouldn’t support a strike on Iranian nuclear sites as ******* promises response to ballistic missile *******.

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“The answer is no,” Biden said in an exchange with reporters when asked if he would support such retaliation after Iran fired about 180 missiles into *******.

Biden’s comments came after he and fellow Group of Seven leaders spoke over the phone on Wednesday to discuss coordinating new sanctions against Iran.

He also reiterated the ******* States’ “full solidarity and support to ******* and its people.”

Iran said it would respond to any violation of its sovereignty with even heavier strikes on ******** infrastructure.

Iran said it fired Tuesday’s missiles as retaliation for attacks that ******* leaders of Hezbollah, ****** and its own paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both ******* in an ******** airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in ****** who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected ******** ******* in July.

— with files from Colleen Long and Aamer Madhani

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffrey in Jerusalem and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, *******, contributed to this report.

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