Islamic Resistance Operations Room’s Statement on the Latest Field Developments in South Lebanon

By Staff

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

{Permission [to fight back] is [hereby] granted to those being fought, for they have been wronged. And Allah is truly Most Capable of helping them [prevail].}

Allah, the Most High, the Greatest, has spoken the truth.

The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance continue to confront the “Israeli” aggression on Lebanon. The “Israeli” enemy army has suffered heavy losses both in terms of equipment and the number of casualties among its officers and soldiers, along the confrontation axes on the frontline and at its positions deep inside occupied Palestine.

1. The Qualitative Haifa Operation:

- The qualitative Haifa operation comes as part of the promise made by the Islamic Resistance’s operations room to escalate and intensify the pace of the series of Khaybar qualitative operations. It also serves to refute the allegations and claims of the enemy’s leaders about the destruction of the Resistance's missile capabilities.

- Through this operation, the Resistance confirms that it still has the ability to simultaneously target the enemy's different military bases with large volleys of precision missiles that rained down on the occupied city of Haifa, hitting their targets accurately.

- The Haifa qualitative operation achieved its goals; the Resistance's missiles reached the five military bases that it sought to target, forcing more than 300,000 settlers to head to shelters.

- The settlers are paying the price for the presence of “Israeli” army bases inside the settlements and occupied cities and near commercial and economic facilities.

- The Resistance has prepared itself to ensure its ability and readiness to carry out this type of operation in Haifa, and even beyond Haifa, for a period of time that the enemy does not anticipate.

2. Regarding the enemy's announcement of the start of the second phase of ground operations in southern Lebanon:

- After the “Israeli” enemy's air and ground operations on the border area declined by 40% due to the inability of their military units to establish a foothold inside Lebanese territory, the enemy hastened to announce the second phase of the ground operation in southern Lebanon.

- The Islamic Resistance’s operations room confirms that the focused and qualitative defensive operations carried out during the "first phase" of the “Israeli” enemy's ground operation forced its troops to withdraw behind the borders in some areas, stripping them of the ability to establish a presence in most of the border towns.

- The “Israeli” air force continues to attack the border villages, which it claims to have control over. It carries out dozens of airstrikes daily using warplanes and drones, in addition to artillery shelling and machine gun combing operations from border outposts targeting many of these villages. These attacks confirm the inability of the “Israeli” army to establish a presence inside Lebanese territory. The enemy’s attempts to advance towards areas south of the town of Khiam, which it had previously tried to enter and withdrew from under the strikes of the mujahideen, serve as further proof of the failure of the first phase.

- The total number of – announced – operations carried out by our heroic fighters against the “Israeli” enemy forces between the start of the ground operation and the issuance of this statement exceeds 350 on Lebanese territory and more than 600 fire operations targeting the “Israeli” military brigades’ operation area in the occupied Palestinian territories, during which the “Israeli” enemy army suffered heavy losses.

- We affirm to the officers and soldiers of the “Israeli” army that what happened to the 51^st Battalion of the Golani Brigade at the edges of the Ainata-Maroun al-Ras-Aitaroun triangle is only the beginning. The days, nights, and battlefield are between us and you. As our most sacred martyr once said, “You will enter vertically and leave horizontally.”

3. Ground confrontations:

• The western sector:
• The “Israeli” enemy forces attempted to advance towards the town of Shamaa in the western sector, with the aim of capturing it as part of the pressure on the second-line towns of the front to reduce the Resistance's rocket fire on the city of Nahariya and the occupied Haifa area.
• The enemy forces infiltrated from the groves of Labouneh, passing through the groves of the towns of Alma al-Shaab and Tayr Harfa, towards the town of Shama.
• The advancing forces fell into a series of ambushes prepared by our fighters at the outskirts of the town and inside it.
• During the infiltration by an armored army company unit towards the vicinity of the town's mosque and the municipal building [east of the UNIFIL position], our Mujahideen targeted it with guided missiles, resulting in the destruction of two Merkava tanks and a bulldozer accompanying the force. Our fighters also targeted an infantry unit near of the Shrine of Prophet Shamoun al-Safa in ??the center of the town with a guided missile, inflicting several casualties among its ranks.
• Our fighters engaged in close-range combat with the enemy forces around the shrine of Prophet Shamoun al-Safa, the municipal building, the mosque, and the outskirts of the town more than five times using machine guns, hand grenades, and rocket-propelled grenades, resulting in a large number of casualties. As a result, “Israeli” medical forces intervened by calling in helicopters to rescue and evacuate the wounded and deployed illumination devices to mark their position in the town's school.
• At the western outskirts of the town of al-Jebbayn, our fighters targeted a Merkava tank with a guided missile, resulting in the death and injury of its crew. In addition, the operation area was shelled with 120mm and 81mm mortar rounds.
• The missile force of the Resistance targeted the advancement routes and positioning points of enemy soldiers and military vehicles along this axis with dozens of rocket salvos and artillery shells.
• The central sector: Ainata-Maroun al-Ras-Aitaroun triangle:

In refutation of the “Israeli” enemy's narrative about the ambush which its forces were caught in at the Ainata-Maroun al-Ras-Aitaroun triangle and in an effort to highlight the heroism displayed by our Mujahideen on the front lines of combat, the operations room of the Islamic Resistance announces the following:

• • Our fighters spotted a force from the 51^st Battalion of the Golani Brigade, part of the 36^th Division, infiltrating in the early hours of Wednesday, 13-11-2024 from the border area between the towns of Aitaroun and Maroun al-Ras in the direction of the southeastern outskirts of the city of Bint Jbeil, with the aim of conducting reconnaissance missions at the Ainata-Maroun al-Ras-Aitaroun triangle.
  • Despite the heavy airstrikes carried out by the “Israeli” air force on the area, the force fell into a well-planned ambush by a group of Resistance fighters.
  • The enemy force reached the ambush area at 09:50 a.m., where a group of our fighters was positioned in a house damaged by the aggression, along with the surrounding area.
  • As soon as the “Israeli” force approached the kill zone, our fighters opened fire on them from various directions using machine guns, forcing the enemy to spread out in the area.
  • A group of enemy soldiers entered a house in the area to take cover from our fighters' fire, while the rest of the soldiers spread out around it.
  • After the enemy force settled in the house and with the call of “Labayk Ya Nasrallah” [at your service O Nasrallah], our fighters targeted the house intensely with a number of anti-personnel and anti-tank RPGs, leading to the destruction of parts of the house above the force taking cover inside.
  • With the collapse of the house and amidst the panic among the remaining “Israeli” forces spread around the area, our Mujahideen opened fire using their machine guns on the remaining enemy soldiers in the vicinity.
  • The clashes continued in the area for over three hours, with a casualty evacuation operation carried out under heavy smoke and fire cover.
  • The “Israeli” enemy army acknowledged the death of an officer and five soldiers from the 51^st Battalion of the Golani Brigade, in addition to four wounded.
  • No ground activity by the “Israeli” enemy forces has been recorded in the area since the incident and up to the present date.
  • It is worth noting that during the July 2006 aggression, a force from the 51^st Battalion of Golani fell into an ambush by the Resistance on the eastern outskirts of the city of Bent Jbeil, resulting in the death of eight soldiers and the wounding of over 25 others. This was one of the major battles in the history of the Golani Brigade and the most difficult battle in the “Second Lebanon War.”
• The eastern sector:
• • The enemy has intensified its aggression on the town of Khiam and its surroundings in recent days (more than 60 air raids and drone strikes and over 130 artillery shells) in preparation for the resumption of its advancement toward the town after its failed attempt more than 10 days ago due to the heavy blows inflicted by the Mujahideen of the Resistance.
  • Our Resistance fighters engaged the advancing forces as soon as they reached the Wata-Khiam area south of the town using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Additionally, they targeted two Merkava tanks with guided missiles, leading to their ignition and the killing and wounding of those inside.
  • After a series of concentrated missile operations and direct clashes that were fought by our fighters with the advancing forces towards the town of Khiam from both the eastern and southern sides and due to the heavy losses inflicted on the enemy army under the strikes of the Resistance, the “Israeli” army withdrew partially, for the second time, from the points it had advanced to.

4. Enemy Losses:

The losses suffered by the “Israeli” enemy army since it announced the beginning of the “second phase” of the ground operation in Southern Lebanon on 12-11-2024, as monitored by the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance, exceed 18 killed and 32 wounded (some of whom are in critical condition), in addition to the destruction of five Merkava tanks and an armored bulldozer.

The cumulative toll of losses for the “Israeli” enemy between 1-10-2024 and the date of this statement is as follows:

• More than 110 killed and over 1,050 wounded officers and soldiers.
• The destruction of 48 Merkava tanks, 9 military bulldozers, 2 Humvees, 2 armored vehicles, and 2 APCs.
• The downing of 6 Hermes 450 drones, 2 Hermes 900 drones, and a Quadcopter drone.

It should be noted that this toll does not include the losses of the “Israeli” enemy in military bases, sites, barracks, settlements, and occupied cities.

{Victory comes only from Allah. Surely Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.}

                                                                                                                  Tuesday 19-11-2024

                                                                                                          16 Jumada al-Oula 1446 AH