xaxam | Debka reports fierce firefights...

Four Israeli soldiers killed on second day of major Maroun er Ras battle in S. Lebanon Thursday
July 21, 2006, 11:30 AM (GMT+02:00)

All four, members of the Egoz Special Operations unit, were killed Thursday, July 20, and 6 soldiers injured, in heavy fighting against Hizballah just inside the Lebanese border opposite Avivim north of Safed. Hizballah suffered heavy losses. They fired rockets at Safed from inside the Lebanese mountain village. The HIzballah crews hide in dozens of tunnels and lay in ambush for Israeli forces, claiming six Israeli soldiers` lives. Earlier Thursday, 3 Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, by Hizballah anti-tank missiles in the same sector. Maroun er Ras is also where 1st Sgt. Yonatan Hadasi, 21, from Kibbutz Merhavia, and 1st Sgt. Yotam Gilboa, 21, from Kibbutz Maoz Haim lost their lives in a fierce battle with Hizballah Wednesday, July 19. Nine members of the unit were injured. DEBKAfile’s military sources report the epic battle evolved from a small Israeli special forces operation just inside Lebanon at noon Wednesday, July 19, to blow up Hizballah positions and destroy small fortified tunnels riddling the hills. The tunnels were assumed to be unoccupied. The Israel force were horrified to find the first packed with Hizballah fighters heavily armed with automatic weapons, mortars and anti-tank missiles. The force took casualties in the first blast of fire. At least one tank was blown up. The combat quickly spread to additional sectors of the warfront, joined by Hizballah fighters who sprang out of more secret tunnels which the Israeli force had not known were there. After several hours of heavy exchanges, Israel’s top brass and northern command were forced to look at a number of painful facts: 1. Hizballah had pulled the wool over their eyes. While pretending to be forced back by massive Israeli air attacks, its fighters went underground. When chief of staff Dan Halutz and other generals announced the Hizballah’s first line of fortifications had been flattened, the line had simply dropped out of sight. Building small tunnels over large areas to conceal small fighter squads was a favorite Vietcong ruse against the Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. 2. Hizballah was not fighting a static war out of the tunnels but working to an organized mobile battle plan. As the fighting grew fierce, and the IDF pumped reinforcements into the battle arena, so too did Hizballah, moving them nimbly from tunnel to tunnel in defensive and offensive roles. 3. By afternoon, the engagement had escalated from a contest over the Maroun er Ras tunnels to a decisive battle between Hizballah and the IDF for control of the Lebanese-Israeli border. 4. The two sides were locked in such close combat that the Israelis were constrained from bringing their helicopter gunships into play for decisive strikes against Hizballah fighters. The same difficulty confronted IDF tank guns. 5. In addition to engaging Israeli special forces at three points in south Lebanon from Maroun er Ras in the east to Rosh Hanikra in the west, Hizballah commandos staged incursions of their own. They made repeated attempts to breach the Israeli border and capture stretches of land in Western Galilee. Israeli forces engaged them in heavy battle Wednesday afternoon at Rosh Hanikra.

Israeli armored columns roll into S. Lebanon on third day of key Maroun er Ras battle which has claimed lives of six Israel soldiers, injured 18

July 21, 2006, 3:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s military sources: This major engagement has brought out the exceptional qualities of Israeli troops, but it must also be said the shortcomings developed in six years of warfare against an opposition of inferior fighting caliber, Palestinian terrorists. In their first ordeal by fire, Israeli special forces are displaying bravery, determination and self-sacrifice. This is especially marked in the performance of the Maglen Special Unit 551 and the Egoz paratroopers. The Israeli custom of officers and NCOs leading their men into battle has led to the high proportion of fallen sergeants. In South Lebanon, soldiers in their twenties are fighting tough, highly-trained guerrilla fighters for the first time on unfamiliar terrain without air or tank cover. Choppers are not used for fear of anti-air missile ambushes and the tanks in rugged mountain terrain are at the mercy of densely-placed roadside bombs and heavy Hizballah Katyusha rocket and mortar fire. Two tanks have been blown up. Ground troops are therefore taking the brunt of the fighting. Some report to DEBKAfile that in close combat, they have heard officers shouting in Farsi. Just as in Jenin 2002, Israeli forces encountered Hizballah and al Qaeda fighters in support of Palestinians, now they are facing members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards who are aiding Hizballah in Lebanon. The men come home with hair-raising accounts of storming the hundreds of bunkers and caves in which Hizballah fighters are lurking. On Wednesday, July 19, Israeli soldiers fought their way into a tunnel in the Maroun es Ras area, blew it up killing the 10-15 fighters inside, and emerged to engage another group of Hizballah hiding in the dense foliage a few yards away. A hand-to-hand battle ensued in which the first two soldiers, 1st Sgt Yonatan Hadasi, 21, and 1st Sgt. Yotam Gilboa lost their lives. Israel’s death toll would have been higher had not rescue and ambulance teams braved heavy fire to extricate the wounded. Five years of tactics used against the rag-tag Palestinian terrorists - painstaking counter-measures, air strikes on empty buildings, succumbing to diplomatic pressure for restraint, have left the IDF ill-prepared to face tough Hizballah guerrilla methods of warfare. The Shiite terrorists are trained in Iranian Revolutionary Guards facilities and their commanders are graduates of their officers’ schools. When Maj.-Gen Benny Ganz, commander of ground forces, warned Thursday that the IDF faces a difficult period - “We shall need to upgrade our capabilities over time” – he was really warning the troops that the next ten days to two weeks of combat were potentially costly in lives before the armed forces develops new combat techniques and capabilities adjusted to meeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guardsmen and their disciples. For the IDF, the Maroun er Ras battle may acquire the epic significance of the Ammunition Hill battle for Jerusalem of the 1967 War. Hizballah and their Iranian sponsors will strive to make it Israel’s Tora Bora, which gave al Qaeda the upper hand over the US army in Afghanistan. The IDF and its top command must not let this happen. A defeat against the hard-line, fanatical Hizballah and its hate-filled Iranian masters is something Israel cannot afford.