The Israeli army confirms the first deaths in Lebanon a week after fighting with Hezbollah resumed.
Posted on March 8, 2026
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon, the first fatalities in the country since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah resumed last week.
The soldiers were killed in combat on Sunday, the Israeli military said.
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“Sergeant Major Maher Khatar, 38, from Majdal Shams… fell during combat in southern Lebanon,” the military said, confirming that a second soldier was killed in the same incident.
The deaths came as Israel expanded its military campaign in Lebanon, striking for the first time in the heart of Beirut, a significant escalation in a conflict that has killed 394 people in Lebanon in a week, including 83 children, 42 women and nine rescue workers, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Beirut in the spotlight
Early Sunday, an Israeli drone attacked a hotel room in Raouche, a coastal neighborhood of the Lebanese capital popular with tourists and, more recently, thousands of displaced Lebanese who had fled fighting elsewhere.
At least four people were killed and 10 injured, Lebanese health officials said.
Israel said the attack targeted senior commanders of Iran’s elite Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“Commanders of the Lebanon Quds Force operated to promote terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said.
Raouche had been spared during the last Israel-Hezbollah war, which ended with a ceasefire in November 2024, although Israel had committed violations of the agreement almost daily.
Lebanon re-entered the war on Monday when Hezbollah fired rockets and drones into Israel in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in joint Israeli-US airstrikes last month.
Israel responded with a fierce airstrike in the south, east and southern suburbs of Beirut. Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces have been advancing into southern Lebanon, taking the hilltops near the border.
Tanks and armored bulldozers have massed on the border, fueling fears of a full-scale Israeli invasion.
Hezbollah has continued to launch rockets and drones into northern Israel on a daily basis, saying its forces were involved in clashes with Israeli troops near the border town of Aitaroun on Sunday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said: “Our country has been dragged into a devastating war that we did not seek or choose,” warning that the scale of the displacement could produce “unprecedented” humanitarian and political consequences.
Israel said it has killed about 200 Hezbollah fighters since hostilities resumed.
The armed group has not published its own balance sheet.
