Helicopters Non-Stop and Massive Losses for the Zionist Army: What’s Happening in Southern Lebanon?

A month into the conflict, the enemy continues its war on Lebanon along two fronts: intense aerial bombardments across all regions, and ground operations. It was notable that the enemy recently intensified its bombardment of the southern suburbs, seemingly in response to its forces suffering numerous casualties and injuries. Claims of an American initiative to reduce air raids in Beirut proved to be baseless. The enemy faced unexpected challenges on the ground as it encountered stiff resistance from Hezbollah fighters, with battles still raging in the border villages of Hafe. To date, the enemy has failed to fully occupy any village or secure dominant positions, although it has tried to publicize what it considers achievements through aerial footage showing significant destruction in these villages.

In the past 48 hours, the resistance successfully carried out a series of strikes, effectively putting entire enemy army battalions out of commission after the enemy admitted to losing 27 soldiers and injuring over 400 since the start of the ground operations. The resistance set a precise ambush in the forested area around the town of Ramia, where 5 Israeli officers and soldiers, including a company commander, were killed, and 6 others were seriously injured, according to the enemy army’s spokesperson. “Haaretz” reported that “the soldiers were killed in a forest ambush opposite the Zari’it settlement, where Hezbollah elements surprised the soldiers, and the evacuation operation was extremely difficult under fire, with the six soldiers sustaining serious injuries during the evacuation.” The enemy army’s radio stated that “the area from which Hezbollah elements emerged in the western sector was subjected to aerial bombing before the entry of Israeli army forces, yet Hezbollah elements managed to fortify well, and when they noticed the advance of the soldiers, they threw a number of hand grenades towards them,” prompting “Maariv” to comment that “this was the situation when the Israeli army was in Lebanon in the eighties and nineties, and it was the same during the Second Lebanon War, and it is the same today.”

Last night, Israeli media reported that operations to transfer injured soldiers continued until around midnight. Notably, Al Jazeera had reported from field sources that an Israeli force was subjected to a significant attack in Aita al-Shaab. Meanwhile, enemy helicopters were busy transporting the injured to Ziv Hospital in Safed, Rambam Hospital in Haifa, and even Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, until yesterday afternoon, when 36 officers and soldiers were moved from the field.

Yesterday at dawn, in Aita al-Shaab, resistance fighters destroyed a Merkava tank with a guided missile, resulting in its burning and the death or injury of its crew. These clashes renewed at close range by noon, with various types of machine guns and missiles, and when a Merkava tank intervened for support, the resistance targeted it with appropriate weapons, leading to its burning and the death or injury of its crew. Moreover, resistance fighters targeted enemy forces advancing at the Adaisseh – Rabe Thalatheen – Al-Taibeh triangle, forcing them to retreat. In addition, resistance fighters targeted a Merkava tank northwest of the town of Adaisseh and another south of the town with guided missiles, resulting in the burning of both tanks and the death or injury of their crews. The resistance also continued to target enemy gatherings in border settlements and on the outskirts of border towns.

Resistance forces targeted the Sint Jin base (a logistical base under the Northern Command) between the Nahariya settlement and the occupied city of Acre with a large missile barrage, and Israeli media revealed that 3 injuries resulted from the missile strikes. Furthermore, resistance fighters targeted the Nashrim base southeast of Haifa and the Zvulun military industries base north of the city with missiles, while Channel 12 reported missile strikes in the vicinity of Haifa. The resistance launched an air attack with a squadron of dive drones on the Ramot Naftali barracks, hitting its targets accurately.

In response to the enemy’s attacks on villages and towns and targeting civilians, the resistance bombarded the occupied city of Safed and the settlements of Kiryat Shmona and Carmiel with intense missile barrages. Israeli media reported that a building in Carmiel was directly hit by a missile, resulting in injuries among the settlers. As part of the “Operation Khyber” series, the resistance bombarded the city of Nahariya with a very large missile barrage.

Meanwhile, a notable statement by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli army, Herzi Halevi, linked the possibility of ending the war with Lebanon to what his army had achieved in terms of “eliminating the top leadership of the party,” hinting at new military assessments based on the changing field situation in favor of the resistance, whether in terms of confronting ground operations or targeting the Israeli interior, which is increasingly expanding towards the center and causing significant disruption there, after nearly completely halting life throughout the north. This coincides with the fact that the enemy army has conducted as many aerial strikes as possible, and more than a month into the war on Lebanon, the army has failed to prevent or limit the depth and intensity of resistance missile strikes, indicating militarily that this is the most Israel can do in the field, which means the continuation of bombing the Israeli interior if the war persists. This, along with the accumulated losses in ground fighting, indicates these factors are present at the security leadership level, hence Halevi’s position, which could be interpreted as an attempt to pressure the political level in front of the public, given that everyone has experienced these army attempts in the ongoing war on Gaza.

Israeli Pilot Suicide

Social media in the enemy entity circulated a post by a settler named Natal Levinson, stating that a pilot close to her committed suicide last night due to post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the war. She added that his family is demanding a military funeral, but the army is refusing, calling on the Israeli public to assist the family in ensuring her son receives a military funeral. Comments flooded in asking her to respond to private messages to provide assistance to the family. Notably, many influential Israelis joined this campaign, including Knesset member Nama Lazimi from the Labor Party.

It should be noted that the army is secretive about suicide cases among its fighters and does not publish real numbers on this phenomenon for several reasons, the most prominent being the sensitivity of the issue, the feelings of the families, and concerns about its impact on the psychological immunity of soldiers, tens of thousands of whom have joined the Disabled Veterans Institution, including those recognized as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to their participation in the war.

The suicidal pilot is Gideon Han, grandfather of Itai Han, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza. Gideon committed suicide a full year after his grandson Itai’s capture on October 7th. According to enemy army regulations, a soldier who commits suicide is not buried by the army, nor is a military funeral held.