TNA Staff
The New Arab / March 31, 2026
Israeli army announces four soldiers killed in southern Lebanon clashes as Netanyahu orders deeper push toward the Litani River.
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that four soldiers, including an officer, were killed during clashes with Hezbollah fighters in its invasion of Lebanon, with reports that an alleged “buffer zone” would be established in the country’s south.
The army said an officer and three soldiers from the “Sayeret Nahal” unit of the Nahal Brigade were killed on Monday evening during a clearing operation near the village of Beit Leif, bringing the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since fighting escalated in Lebanon in early March to at least ten.
In a statement, the military named three of the soldiers who “fell during combat”, while saying a fourth, who had not yet been publicly identified, was also killed in the same incident. It added that another soldier was severely wounded and a reservist was moderately wounded.
According to Israeli media reports, the clashes broke out at around 6:30pm when Israeli forces encountered armed Hezbollah fighters during the operation.
As troops began evacuating their wounded toward a designated landing zone, Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile at the invasion force, with Israeli soldiers responding with gunfire, shelling, and air strikes.
The Israeli army’s website confirmed that nine soldier deaths in Lebanon had been officially announced since 2 March, with a tenth yet to be formally identified.
Deeper push and annexation calls
The deaths come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military on Monday to expand its invasion further into southern Lebanon, pushing towards the Litani River under the stated pretext of establishing a “buffer zone”, an objective that dates back to 1978 and Israel’s long-running push to reach the Litani River under the guise of a “security buffer”.
Israel’s far-right ministers have gone further, openly calling for the annexation of southern Lebanon as the military destroys bridges and homes to sever the area from the rest of the country.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last week said the war in Lebanon “needs to end with a different reality entirely”, including a “change of Israel’s borders”.
The clashes on Monday night marked a fresh escalation, as Israel opened a new front in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, targeting roads linking Hezbollah strongholds and cutting off strategic supply lines.
Israeli forces have struck bridges over the Litani River in recent weeks, and are now working to isolate the western Bekaa from southern Lebanon.
In his latest televised appearance, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem had declared that the group’s fighters would not be able to halt the Israeli invasion but would make consolidating control as costly as possible.
More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with over a million displaced since the offensive began.
On Tuesday alone, Israeli drone strikes killed four people in southern Lebanon, including two in a strike on a car near Tyre and two more in a raid on Derikifa.
