ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Israeli military on Friday claimed that they killed over 250 Hezbollah fighters and “eliminated” over 2,000 military targets of the group during four days of their incursion into the southern regions of Lebanon, while announcing the death of two soldiers on annexed Golan Heights due to drone attacks, which Israeli media outlets say it originated from Iraq. 

 

Among the “250” Hezbollah members that Israel claims to have killed five of them were “battalion commanders” and “10 company commanders” as well as “6 platoon commanders”.

 

“The Israeli Air Force is also conducting preemptive strikes during these intelligence-based operations in southern Lebanon,” according to a statement published by the Israeli military on social media platform X.

 

The Israeli military also said two of their soldiers were killed in a drone launched “from the east”, with Israeli media outlets reporting the strike had originated from Iraq. 

 

The Israeli media outlets have also reported that the Iraq drone attack injured 24 Israeli soldiers. 

 

For their part, Hezbollah announced on Friday that their militants targeted Israeli troops in the southern Lebanese border regions, and earlier in the day, they claimed they had shelled Israeli soldiers, without providing figures on casualties and material damage. 

 

Hezbollah fighters targeted “an Israeli enemy troop force during its advance” toward west of the border village of Yarun “with artillery shells and a rocket salvo,” according to a statement. 

 

Israel’s renewed Friday ground and air campaigns on Lebanon came hours after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed the public in a rare Friday sermon, vowing to keep up fighting Israel.