Summary of Bint Jbiel Battle

Summary of Bint Jbiel Battle
23:53 Jul 26, '06 / 1 Av 5766

(IsraelNN.com) The IDF was in control of the village of Bint Jbiel before a Golani unit was ambushed Wednesday morning, according to military sources and analysts. Eight soldiers were killed in the intense hand-to-hand combat. Most of the soldiers were manning houses
in the village of about 4,000 Lebanese when they were attacked around 5 a.m. (10 p.m. EDT).

Hizbullah terrorists, who have been building tunnels and stockpiling weapons in the six years since the IDF withdrew from the area, approached from outside the village and attacked soldiers on a hill.

The enemy fighters were equipped with anti-tank weapons, rocket propelled grenades, mortar shells, and Lau rockets. The equipment came from Syria and Lebanon. The dead and wounded were evacuated under fire, and several soldiers carried stretchers more than one mile.

Hizbullah exploited their advantage of not allowing civilians to leave the village and of hiding weapons in mosques. IDF officers ordered pilots not to fire on the civilian population, and the IDF does not fire at mosques as a matter of principle.