Death toll among Hezbollah fighters rises to 165 in cross-border clashes with Israel

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said Monday that one of its fighters has been killed in the ongoing border clashes with the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, bringing the group’s death toll to 165 since Oct. 8.

The fighter was identified as Samah Asaad Asaad (Abu Tarab) from the town of Kfarkela in southern Lebanon.

Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah announced that it had repelled an attack by Israeli forces off the southern border.

Amid the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israeli troops and Hamas, tension has flared along the border between the Israeli-occupied territories and Lebanon, with exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and the Israeli regime have been exchanging sporadic fire since October 8, a day after the Zionist regime started bringing the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip under a relentless and indiscriminate war.

The Lebanese resistance movement has announced the group’s “guns and rockets” were with Palestinian fighters, and stressed that it will intensify its attacks against Israel if necessary.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has recently told senior Israeli officials that Hezbollah is “ten times stronger than Hamas”, Israel’s Kan public broadcaster has reported.

President Joe Biden and his aides have also advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch pre-emptive strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah has already fought off two Israeli wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, forcing a humiliating retreat upon the Tel Aviv regime’s military in both cases.

The resistance movement has vowed to resolutely defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli-imposed war.