Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed amid fierce clashes with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said.
In a statement, the IDF said that seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks on Wednesday afternoon - the first inside Lebanon since the invasion began.
Earlier, the military confirmed that 22-year-old Captain Eitan Itzhak Oster, a member of the Egoz commando unit, had died after a surprise attack by Hezbollah militants near the village of Adaisseh.
Hezbollah said that its fighters were engaging Israeli forces inside Lebanon on Wednesday, claiming that it had destroyed three Israeli Merkava tanks with rockets near the border town of Maroun El Ras.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to bombard Beirut’s southern suburbs on Wednesday, where Hezbollah has its headquarters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a condolence video, said: "We are at the height of a difficult war against Iran's Axis of Evil, which wants to destroy us.
"This will not happen because we will stand together and with God's help, we will win together," he said.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that about 1.2 million Lebanese had been displaced by Israeli attacks.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) claimed that an Israeli attack on the town of Aitaroun had claimed the lives of six of the town’s residents, including paramedics from the Islamic Health Authority.
The IDF has not commented on the claims.
The news came as the region braced for further escalation as Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Tuesday night.
Iran said the missiles were in response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard General Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut.
Israel said that most of the missiles had been intercepted and that no casualties were recorded.
Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff, said that Israel would respond to Iran’s attack as fears grew that a conflict could suck in the US.
“We will respond. We can locate important targets and we can hit them precisely and powerfully,” he said.
“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.”
Over 1,000 people have been killed in strikes on Lebanon in the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel almost a year ago, in support of its ally Hamas in the war in Gaza, which began after the militant group staged the deadliest assault in Israel's history on October 7.
