Behind the Bint Jbail battle space in Israel

AP:

The heavy guns thundered before dawn Monday, 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 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 Monday, the army said, as guerrillas in the town, a Hezbollah stronghold, issued a withering barrage of bullets, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells.

Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, chief of operations for the Israeli Defense Force, 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.

Ambulances rushed the wounded over roads dug up by tank tracks. They drove past fields left charred and barren by fires from hundreds of Hezbollah rockets and through the empty streets of ghost towns - their inhabitants hiding in bomb shelters.

Helicopters airlifted the seriously wounded out of the area. The two soldiers were killed as they worked to evacuate soldiers wounded earlier - some by misdirected fire from Israeli forces, the military said.

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This is a pretty colorful description of the evacuation of the wounded. All it really tells you is the approximate size of the enemy force, 100 to 200 Hezzies, and the number of Israeli casualties about 20 plus two KIA's. The story goes on to follow the wounded to a hospital in Haifa where they are treated and met by well wishers including some Jews from France who have flown in to offer support. I find the contrast between those scrabling to get out of Lebanon and those flying into a war zone to offer support interesting and somewhat telling as a metric of who is winning.

Haaretz puts the number of wounded at 13 instead of 20. It also estimates enemy losses as 10. Five of the Israeli wounded resulted from a friendly fire accident involving an Israeli Air Force craft.