...There are dozens of wounded soldiers here in northern Israel’s main hospital, and all seem to have stories of unexpectedly fierce ground battles with Hezbollah. They describe Hezbollah as heavily armed, well organized and maddeningly elusive. The fighters, well concealed in bunkers and tunnels, emerge to fire automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and antitank rockets, they say, and then quickly disappear again. In Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon — which led to the birth of Hezbollah — Israeli troops stormed north and reached the outskirts of the capital, Beirut, within two weeks. The goal this time is limited to driving Hezbollah out of rocket range, yet it has proven far more difficult. After a month of fighting, some 10,000 Israeli soldiers are still waging daily firefights in towns and villages that are five miles or less from the border. In fact, the fighting has sometimes been visible from the Israeli side of the frontier. Of the more than 80 Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting, 45 have died in the past week as the ground campaign has intensified. Now that the Israeli government has approved an expanded offensive, the recovering soldiers say they remain confident Israel can drive Hezbollah back from the border, but acknowledge it will involve tough fighting that could last weeks, in contrast to the swift and decisive victory many of them expected when the fighting began. Capt. Hanoch Daub, 26, explained the difficulties of fighting an enemy who lives among the civilian population and dresses like them. On Tuesday, Captain Daub, a company commander in the tank corps, faced a nightmarish mission. Two Israeli soldiers were badly wounded and had taken cover in a house in a valley in the center of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold that has been the scene of heavy fighting for more than two weeks. The wounded needed to be moved out urgently. Captain Daub guided his tank into the town center in broad daylight, knowing in advance that his tank would be fully exposed to a furious Hezbollah assault.
“We were under constant fire,” Captain Daub said. “They never stopped hitting us.” The tank reached the two wounded soldiers and delivered them to safety. But as Captain Daub tried to rejoin his company on the outskirts of town, his tank was blasted again, and his face, neck and leg were peppered with shrapnel. “Hezbollah is everywhere, but they are very hard to find,” he said. “They work in small units or two or three men. They wear civilian clothes. You don’t see them. You just see their fire.” ...
