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Wounded IDF troops describe Bint Jbail battle as 'hell on earth'
Wounded soldiers who took part in heavy combat Wednesday on the outskirts of the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail recounted their experiences from their hospital beds at Haifa's Rambam Medical Center, which received 22 of the wounded casualties of the battle.
"They suffer mostly from shrapnel and also from penetration of bullets," said Dr. Micky Hilbertal, who runs the emergency room where the soldiers are hospitalized. "Most of the injuries are in the limbs, a few of them are in the chest and stomach."
Hilbertal said the most similar experience he can recall when he was required to treat this many wounded was during the first Lebanon war. "[Back then], helicopters landed here almost non-stop," he said, noting that Rambam is working in full emergency mode.
The wounded soldiers described the battle as a bitter one which took place in a built-up setting, one where enemy forces had organized a well-planned ambush. Soldiers faced gunfire from any and all directions.
"They shot at us from 180 degrees," said one of the soldiers. Most of the dead and seriously wounded are those from the initial wave of ground troops which tried to enter one of the homes in Bint Jbail. The soldiers who suffered light wounds are primarily those who arrived on the scene to retrieve the bodies of the dead and wounded soldiers lying in the battlefield.
Some of the wounded were in an open field and others behind walls as well as inside homes. Sergeant Tzachi Duda suffered light injuries in his leg due to shrapnel.
"The battle began at 3:30 at night," he said. "Ten minutes after the first clash, we arrived to help. There was heavy fire from rocket launchers, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades. I provided cover fire for soldiers who tried to reach the wounded, and this went on for hours. Eventually, a missile hit the yard where I was standing. I was thrown back along with the wall which I was hiding behind. In my lifetime I never expected to see bodies and people with bullets in their chest."
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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743473.html
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Up to 13 Israeli soldiers were killed and many more wounded yesterday in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil during the fiercest battle so far in the Middle East conflict. Nearby, in the village of Maroun el-Ras, which troops had entered at the weekend, an Israeli officer was reported killed.
Last night the city of Tyre was hit in a major Israeli air strike. Sixteen people, including six children, were injured when a seven-storey building that had been used as a Hizbullah community centre collapsed.
In Bint Jbeil, Israeli troops ran into large numbers of heavily armed Hizbullah fighters when they tried to sweep through the town, just two and a half miles from the Israeli border.
"We have got very intense fighting, house to house, room to room," a spokesman for the Israeli military said last night. He refused to give full casualty figures but said there were "many seriously injured Israelis". Reports put the number of dead and injured at 30.
Troops found a large cache of Hizbullah weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, automatic assault rifles and ammunition. The spokesman said: "This indicates they were planning on holding out much longer." He said more than 200 Hizbullah fighters had been killed since the conflict began.
Israel's northern command chief said the offensive in Lebanon was still not nearing its end. "I assume it will continue for several more weeks and in a number of weeks we will be able to declare a victory," Major General Udi Adam said.
The heaviest fighting yesterday came as troops tried to capture an important hilltop at Bint Jbeil. Hizbullah said its fighters had ambushed an Israeli unit that was moving from a ridge towards the town. "Our men can hear the screams of their wounded calling for help," one Hizbullah source told Reuters.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831157,00.html
The IDF believes that Hezbollah lost 15 of its fighters in Wednesday's fighting.
Eight of the IDF dead - five soldiers and three officers - were from the Golani Brigade; they were killed in fighting in the town of Bint Jbail. The ninth soldier, a paratrooper, was killed Wednesday night in Maroun Ras.
The IDF began its operation against Bint Jbail on Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, troops from the Golani and Paratroops Brigades had taken up positions on the outskirts of the town, and Golani soldiers had also entered some of the homes.
At approximately 5 A.M. Wednesday, Golani infantry entered Bint Jbail from the northeast and headed toward the center of town. The aim of the operation was to find and engage Hezbollah guerrillas and destroy their stores of arms.
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http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743535.html
By Jihad Siqlawi - TYRE, Lebanon
Nine Israeli soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants Wednesday, the army said, the highest death toll since its massive offensive on Lebanon was launched 15 days ago.
Eight soldiers were killed and 22 injured in fighting around the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah military stronghold a few kilometres (miles) from the border.
The ninth was killed near the nearby hilltop village of Marun al-Ras, which the army said it had taken control of on Saturday.
The fierce exchanges came as Israel sought to press its ground incursion into south Lebanon after meeting tough resistance.
Two Shiite fighters were killed and eight civilians wounded in Lebanon Wednesday, police and militant groups said.
It was the deadliest day for Israeli troops since the army launched its massive offensive against Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah killed eight Israeli soldiers and seized another two in a cross-border attack.
Israel's commander in the north warned that the blitz against Lebanon would continue for "several more weeks" as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had told a parliamentary committee he wanted to establish a security zone of one to two kilometres in southern Lebanon.
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http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17098