The Israeli military confirmed tonight that two of its soldiers lost their lives and some 20 were injured during heavy fighting near the town of Bint Jbail, just inside the Lebanese border.
The heavy guns thundered before dawn, sending deadly shells crashing down into the Lebanese border town and paving the way for the advancing Israeli tanks and troops.
By daybreak, bloody and bruised Israeli soldiers, shock etched deep in their faces, were streaming back over the border into Israel.
The incessant crackle of gunfire pierced the air as explosions over the hills surrounding Bint Jbail kicked up plumes of gray smoke. All the while, tanks rolled back into Israel, ferrying the wounded over the rocky, barren landscape.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 20 were wounded, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) confirmed, as guerrillas in the town, a Hezbollah stronghold, issued a withering barrage of bullets, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells.
Major General Gadi Eizenkot, chief of operations for the IDF, said between 100 and 200 Hezbollah fighters were fortified inside the town, while much of the civilian population had fled. Hezbollah, he said, suffered dozens of casualties.
As the tanks, doubling up as battlefield ambulances, crossed a breach in the electric border fence, they were met by medics waiting for the Israeli casualties.
One-by-one the wounded were carried out on stretchers. One young soldier had blood streaming down his leg, which was bound with a tourniquet. Another lay still on a stretcher, only his twitching legs indicating that he was alive.
Having brought back his wounded comrades, a tank driver sat on the turret clutching his head between his gloved hands and crying while two crew members tried to console him.
Helicopters airlifted the seriously wounded out of the area.
The Israelis wounded in the battle today were rushed to Haifa's Rambam hospital for treatment. In the recovery room, a soldier, 21-year-old Yishai Green, lay in a bed with two large Israeli flags hanging next to him.
"It's a real mess and I am not allowed to talk about it," was all Green had to say about the battle for Bint Jbail.
Also known the "capital of the resistance" due to its intense support of Hizbollah during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of the south, Bint Jbail was visited yesterday by a Red Cross doctor Dr. Hassan Nasreddine, who said he saw families crowded into schools, mosques and other buildings.
Many of the town's population of 30,000 are believed to have remained behind despite Israeli warnings to get out. Following an intense artillery barrage, Israeli troops took control of a hilltop in Bint Jbail, but the rest of the town was still being held by Hezbollah.