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On January 14, 2024, a previously unknown group published a statement claiming responsibility for an attack earlier that morning involving five infiltrators who crossed the Israeli border from Lebanon in the Shebaa Farms area and clashed with an Israeli military patrol near the Ruwaysat Al-'Alam outpost, inflicting several casualties. In the statement, which spread on social media, the group announced that three of its fighters were killed in the encounter, while another two safely retreated.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published a statement stating that at 4:27 A.M. Israel time on January 14, a patrol in the Har Dov region eliminated three terrorists who had infiltrated Israel from Lebanon. Five Israeli soldiers were injured in the incident.
In its statement, the group stated that the operation was in response to the January 2 assassination of Hamas Political Bureau deputy chief Saleh Al-Arouri and other Hamas operatives in an airstrike in Beirut, and also a "message to the Zionist enemy to stop its criminal war against Palestine and Lebanon before the entire region and the world get burned from its fire," and an expression of support and solidarity with "our brethren in Gaza," and with Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades military wing.
The statement further reported that three additional fighters from the group were killed "on Friday" in the same area in an Israeli drone strike, after being there for 35 hours on an "intelligence-gathering mission." It should be noted that on Friday, December 8, 2023, the IDF Spokesperson Unit announced that an Israeli drone had eliminated a group of militants in this area.
The Arabic-language London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported on the day of the statement that according to "Lebanese security forces," the group in question is unknown and the bodies of the militants were not brought to any hospital in Lebanon. The report also stated that sources close to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have denied claims that the Al-'Izz Islamic Battalions was involved in the attack.
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