Fears of wider war in Middle East grow as Israel and Iran vow retaliations

ISRAEL REPORTS 8 COMBAT DEATHS AS TROOPS BATTLE HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON

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DEIR AL-BALAH: Israel's ground incursion into Lebanon to battle Hezbollah militants left eight Israeli soldiers dead on Wednesday, while the region braced for further escalation as Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran's ballistic missile attack a day earlier.

The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks, without elaborating. The assaults were among the deadliest against Israeli forces in months.

Another seven troops, including a combat medic, were wounded. Earlier, the military had announced that a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade was killed in Lebanon, the first Israeli combat death since the start of the incursion.

The announcements came on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

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

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets

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

Hezbollah said its fighters wounded and killed a group of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon after detonating an explosive device, but the militants did not elaborate on the number of dead and wounded.

The two attacks announced Wednesday followed other assaults on Israeli forces earlier in the year. In June, an explosion in southern Gaza killed eight Israeli soldiers. In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack by Palestinian militants in central Gaza, the deadliest single attack on Israeli forces since Israel-Hamas war erupted.

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