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Strict military censorship, far more constricted than anything seen in Ukraine, prevents almost any information on the number of dead and wounded in the Israeli Defense Forces from reaching the news media.
In a rare break, WaL reported on two Israeli news outlets that managed to acquire sources that revealed some figures about the war casualties among the IDF ranks.
Israeli Newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that 10,000 IDF soldiers have been killed or wounded since the genocide in Gaza began. It claimed further than this has averaged out to around 1,000 per month.
Channel 12, another Israeli media outlet, reports that by July 2024, 20,000 IDF members had been injured, with 8,298 being classified as disabled.
If true, and assuming a typical 4-1 wounded-to-killed ratio, then the IDF has sustained around the same amount killed and wounded in 9 months in Gaza as the US sustained during the entire occupation of Iraq from 2003 to 2011.
Now, as Tel Aviv expands its operations into Lebanon, there’s a high chance that the rate of 1,000 per month could rise. Reports, albeit from Israel’s direct enemy in Hezbollah, already suggest that several IDF units have been driven back across the Blue Line border because of casualties.
X account War Watch reported on Wednesday that an alert was sent out on official IDF Telegram channels that an infiltration team advancing on the town of Odaisseh was defeated by Hezbollah after being detected. 20 were injured and one was killed, with the wounded evacuated by helicopter. Attempting to reenter the town the following day, IDF forces were also bombed, though Hezbollah didn’t provide specifics.
The Vietnam syndrome
Another team advancing on the cemetery of the town of Yaroun on Thursday was “killed and wounded” when Hezbollah detonated an explosive device the IDF forces were passing by.
The same scenario happened to a force from the Golani Brigade in the town of Maroun al-Ras, Hezbollah claimed in a statement.
“Since dawn on Thursday, the Islamic Resistance fighters have been confronting all attempts by the elite forces of the Israeli enemy army to advance on more than one axis in southern Lebanon with various types of weapons and explosive devices, inflicting heavy losses on them in terms of equipment and personnel,” Hezbollah field sources told Al Manar on Thursday.
“The sources added that the fighters continue to prevent any Israeli advance in southern Lebanon with pre-prepared ambushes. They also explained that Hezbollah also continued targeting supply lines and troop gatherings in several Israeli bases and sites along the border,” The Cradle added.
On Wednesday, Al Manar was told by another Hezbollah official that 80 IDF members had been killed or wounded, adding that 5 Merkava tanks had also been destroyed. From much farther away, The Cradle reports that the Houthis in Yemen launched a cruise missile that “hit military posts deep inside Israel,” though Israel has not released any statements about the strike, whether there were casualties or if the missiles were intercepted. Typically if a projectile were intercepted the IDF would not hesitate to say so.
It’s difficult to verify how much if any of these claims are true. As seen throughout Ukraine, both sides have a vested interest in portraying their cause as succeeding—none more so than Hezbollah, who before the invasion begun had suffered several debilitating attacks: the pager and walkie-talkie sabotage, and the assassination of its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah.
The Odaisseh defense was claimed by Hezbollah exactly as it was reported by War Watch, potentially increasing the credibility of the reports. Official IDF releases tally only 8 dead in the invasion of southern Lebanon.
With just 3 days short of the 1-year mark of Operation Al Aqsa Flood and the genocide in Gaza, the international attempts to apply pressure to halt the slaughter has been marked by abysmal failure. The genocide in Gaza, as well as the recent invasion, are not unpopular in Israel, and the only likelihood of them becoming so is if the IDF begins to suffer the kinds of casualties endured by the Americans in the Vietnam War.
It wasn’t the killing of some 3 million Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians that led to the end of the US adventure there, but the awful US casualty figures. As long as the Israeli population doesn’t perceive themselves as having to pay a heavy price for what the conscription-based military is doing in their name, there will no little internal pressure to cease the fighting. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: IDF Mountains Brigade training in northern Israel, near the Lebanon border in March 2024. PC IDF CC 3.0. BY SA
