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How Israel built its most talented baseball roster ever for the 2023 World Baseball Classic
MIAMI (JTA) — As Team Israel celebrated its victory over Nicaragua Sunday afternoon in its opening game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, there was proof up and down the lineup card of a months-long recruitment process that brought together a slew of major league talent.
There was manager Ian Kinsler, a 14-year MLB veteran and four-time All-Star. Big league pitchers Dean Kremer, who started the game, plus Richard Bleier and Zack Weiss. All-Star slugger Joc Pederson, and major league catcher Garrett Stubbs, who drove in the winning run.
For Kinsler, who played a central role in putting the roster together, the victory served as validation — even if he didn’t know what some of the players actually looked like until they arrived in Miami.
“Knowing the names, and then finally seeing all the faces and everybody coming together and playing a good game yesterday was very rewarding,” Kinsler said Monday. “It was a lot of fun.”
Pulling the team together took a combination of personal cajoling, a widely respected manager, Jewish geography and an effort to tap — and ignite — the sometimes embryonic Jewish identities of players who hadn’t given much thought to how their Jewish roots and baseball prowess might be combined.
“There’s quite a few guys who really want to help Israel and feel Jewish and buy into it,” Team Israel general manager Peter Kurz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We evolve towards those players more — a player who says that he’s been to Israel, or that he’s connected to Israel. We definitely like to keep more than a player who was not connected at all, even though we try to go for the best athletes.”
The journey to assemble Team Israel, a 30-man roster composed largely of American Jewish ballplayers, half of whom have MLB experience, actually began back in 2021.
While playing for Israel’s 2020 Olympic team, Kinsler had conversations with Kurz and Israel Association of Baseball president Jordy Alter about managing the team in 2023.
“Once I developed the relationship with those two in the Olympics, it was a pretty easy decision,” Kinsler told JTA prior to the WBC. Kinsler had never managed a team before, at any level.
After he took the helm last June, Kinsler took a lead role in the team’s recruitment, working off a preliminary list of 50 players who were eligible to play for the team — meaning they were Jewish themselves, or the child or the grandchild of a Jew or married to one, and thus eligible for Israeli citizenship.
Kurz said Kinsler’s reputation around baseball was a key factor in offering him the job.
“There’s no doubt that Ian is one of the most respectable Jewish players that’s ever played the game before,” he said. “People respect him and they look up to him. Having experienced being in Israel twice, and playing for us in the Olympics, it just gives him that much more legitimization to talk to these players and ask them to come play for Team Israel.”
Kinsler is not the WBC’s only inexperienced manager who was chosen in part as a draw for players. Former players Mark DeRosa (United States), Mike Piazza (Italy) and Yadier Molina (Puerto Rico) are all managing, and Nelson Cruz is both a player on the Dominican Republic team and its general manager.
Ian Kinsler played for Team Israel at the Olympics in Tokyo after 14 MLB seasons. (Courtesy of JNF-USA)
As Kinsler began his recruitment, his first call was to Joc Pederson.
“It’s been an awesome experience,” Pederson told JTA. “I really enjoyed my time last time I played [in the 2012 WBC qualifier], and I wanted to do that again. Great group of guys.”
From there, Kurz said, he and Kinsler went down the list of Jewish major leaguers, calling each one to gauge their interest in representing Israel in the World Cup-style tournament. Given the timing of the WBC — just weeks before Major League Baseball’s Opening Day — it was largely a conversation about logistics.
“I think it wasn’t really necessarily the conversation about ‘Are you Jewish?’ Or ‘Are you eligible to play for Team Israel,’” Kinsler explained. “I think it was more of a conversation of ‘do you want to participate?’”
Pederson, who texted fellow big league players like Houston Astros star Alex Bregman and Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Rowdy Tellez (who is playing for Mexico), said health concerns and having enough time to get ready for the season were factors. New York Yankees players Harrison Bader and Scott Effross dropped out because of injuries.
And why did Pederson want to help recruit? It’s simple: “Because I like winning, and I want to win,” he said.
Israel hoped that having big-name players like Kinsler and Pederson lead the outreach efforts would pay off. While some of the game’s top Jewish stars ultimately did not join the team — namely Bregman and Atlanta Braves ace Max Fried — their work was far from fruitless, as this roster boasts the most major league experience Israel has ever had.
“I tried to get Peter to hold off as long as he could, so I could be the first one to get in touch with people,” Kinsler said. “Because I do think it helps hearing from a player.”
When making his calls, Kinsler said he shared his experience playing in the 2017 WBC with the U.S. team, plus “what kind of environment we’re trying to create for Israeli baseball.”
While navigating spring training schedules and injuries is certainly part of it, Kurz said there were many players who were excited for the opportunity to wear Israel across their jersey.
One of those players is Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer, who was the first Israeli to be drafted into the MLB. Kremer, whose parents are Israeli, was born and raised in California, but has spent time living in Israel.
Dean Kremer pitches against Nicaragua in Israel’s first game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, March 12, 2023, in Miami. (Courtesy Team Israel)
“Playing for Team Israel, anytime I get to put on that uniform is special for me,” Kremer said after pitching in Israel’s victory over Nicaragua. “It’s like another home. So every time I get to represent it’s one of the better feelings.”
Pederson added that the whole team “feels extremely proud.”
Ryan Lavarnway, a veteran catcher who has also played for Israel since 2017 and is seen as one of its leaders, has been vocal about how much it means to him to suit up for Israel.
“Playing for this team is super meaningful to me,” Lavarnway said after Israel’s exhibition game against the Miami Marlins. “It’s been really life changing. And I hope that this next generation of players that are new to this team takes the baton, and it means as much to them as it’s meant to us.”
One of those younger players is Toronto Blue Jays prospect Spencer Horwitz.
“Coming into this, I didn’t know what to really expect, this being my first time playing for Team Israel,” Horwitz said. “It’s living up to everything that people are saying. That environment we were just in was definitely electric.”
With reports of antisemitism on the rise in the United States, Kurz said players are more inclined to publicly identify as Jewish.
“I think a lot of these players feel, even more so, that they have to identify as being Jewish. Nobody’s trying to hide that at all,” he said.
Kurz added that Israel had an easier time recruiting top talent for the 2023 roster than in previous years, for a few reasons.
First, he said, both Team Israel and the WBC itself have gained in prominence over the past decade. For Israel, a surprising run in the 2017 WBC helped put Israeli baseball on the map, garnering excitement among both fans and potential players. And the WBC itself has grown more popular in the United States and around the world, with superstar players such as Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout suiting up for their ancestral countries, and MLB devoting more resources to marketing the tournament.
Geography also played a role. With most of the games being played in Miami, that allowed MLB players to more easily participate, as half the league has spring training in Florida.
When trying to discover Jewish players, there’s a certain element of word-of-mouth Jewish geography that comes into play, too. No player encapsulates that better than Ty Kelly.
“It’s easy to get the Cohens and the Levys. It’s more difficult to get the Ty Kellys,” Kurz said.
Ty Kelly bats during Israel’s exhibition game against the Miami Marlins, March 8, 2023 in Jupiter, Florida. (Emma Sharon/MLB)
Kurz recalled that about seven years ago, he heard from someone on Long Island who had taken his kids to a minor league game. Kelly was signing autographs and spotted the kids’ kippahs and told them he was Jewish. They told their father, who in turn told Kurz.
“And the rest was history,” Kurz said. Kelly, who has played for Israel since the 2017 WBC, has become another one of the team’s leaders. After this WBC, he will begin his coaching career in the Seattle Mariners organization.
The WBC’s eligibility rules also allowed Israel some flexibility in recruiting. Outfielder Alex Dickerson, for example, is not Jewish, but his wife is.
“This is about creating the best team possible within the rules,” Kinsler said.
Creating the best team also meant creating a strong coaching staff.
Kinsler recruited former Israel manager Brad Ausmus, who was Kinsler’s manager in the big leagues, and former All-Star and fan favorite Kevin Youkilis, the former Boston Red Sox first baseman.
“It was easy,” Youkilis said of his decision to join the team. “Being part of this is part of my heritage, part of growing up Jewish and being bar mitzvahed and all that. It was an easy yes.”
Youkilis, who retired in 2014, said coaching full-time isn’t in the cards for him, but he’s enjoying the experience right now.
“It’s remarkable how good a talent we have, a collective Jewish group of ballplayers that when I was growing up probably wasn’t that strong,” he said. “It’s good to see the next generation of ballplayers, and to be a coach, and to witness it and be around and help guys.”
While this team, and its coaches, is largely a group of American Jews, the uniform says Israel. Even with the fraught political climate in Israel, which is experiencing an uptick in violence and widespread protests over the country’s far-right government and its controversial judicial proposals, both Kurz and Kinlser said politics were not a factor for any player.
“I don’t think in general athletes are too scared of those types of things,” Kinsler said.
Kurz added that leading up to the WBC, numerous players reached out to ask questions and gain a better understanding of the current situation in Israel. But nobody expressed hesitation about identifying with the country. (There have not been protests or anti-Israel demonstrations, as there have been at times in the past when Team Israel plays in the United States and abroad.)
“They’re definitely interested, they want to know what’s going on,” Kurz said. “They want to know who they’re playing for.”
Kelly, who was part of those types of discussions in the clubhouse with the Olympic team, said the players are keeping an eye on the news, but they haven’t had many conversations about it yet.
“I think it’s sort of the nature of the team, having a lot of new guys and people not really knowing what their roles are supposed to be, as far as talking about that stuff, or what their opinions are supposed to be,” Kelly said. “I think that happens as guys get to know each other more.”
Building camaraderie was also a priority for the team. Prior to the tournament, Israel held a private screening of the new documentary “Israel Swings for Gold,” which followed the team’s Olympic experience in Tokyo.
Kinsler said that while the event was not mandatory, he encouraged players to attend.
“I think that’ll be a great bonding experience for us, and something that other teams don’t really have the luxury of using as motivation or bringing togetherness,” Kinsler said beforehand. “That could be an advantage for us.”
And with a tough draw in Pool D, which pits Israel against top teams including the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, Israel will need any advantage it can get.
But Israel is no stranger to being the underdog. In fact, the team relishes it.
“We’re certainly the David against the Goliath of the baseball world. But you know, we love it,” Kurz said.
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The post How Israel built its most talented baseball roster ever for the 2023 World Baseball Classic appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Longing for the way secular Jews used to be
איך זיץ דאָ און הער זיך צו צום קול פֿון מײַן פֿעטער יונה ז״ל ווי ער ריכט אָפּ דעם פּסח־סדר אינעם יאָר 1962… און איך קוועל דערפֿון.
יונה גאָטעסמאַן איז געווען אַ סעקולערער ייִד, אָדער ווי מע פֿלעג עס רופֿן אין יענע יאָרן — אַ וועלטלעכער. ער האָט נישט געהיט שבת אָדער כּשרות, און טאַקע דערפֿאַר איז בײַ אים נישט געווען קיין מניעה צו רעקאָרדירן זײַן קול בײַם סדר. אָבער ווען מע הערט ווי ער זאָגט דעם יום־טובֿדיקן קידוש, אָדער דעם „הא לחמא עניא‟ (די דערקלערונג וואָס רופֿט יעדן איינעם וואָס ס׳איז הונגעריק צו קומען און עסן) אָדער דעם „אחד מי יודע‟, דאַכט זיך דיר אַז סע זינגט אַ פֿרומער ייִד מיט אַ קיטל. ער זאָגט די הגדה מיט אַ ניגון וואָס חזרט זיך כּסדר איבער און די ווערטער פֿליִען פֿאַרבײַ אַזוי גיך אַז ס׳איז מיר אַ מאָל שווער צו דערקענען וווּ ער האַלט. אָבער טאַקע דערפֿאַר קלינגט עס אַזוי נאַטירלעך.
אונטן קענט איר אַליין הערן ווי יונה גאָטעסמאַן ריכט אָפּ דעם סדר. די ערשטע 30 סעקונדעס זענען שווער צו הערן אָבער דערנאָך הערט מען שוין אַ סך בעסער.
ווי אַ סך ייִדן פֿון זײַן דור איז דער פֿעטער דערצויגן געוואָרן אין אַ פֿרומער שטוב. די משפּחה האָט געוווינט אין סערעט, אין דער בוקאָווינע, און יונה האָט, אַ פּנים, גוט געדענקט דעם נוסח פֿון זײַן טאַטן, חיים, וואָס האָט געדאַוונט סײַ בײַ די וויזשניצער חסידים, סײַ בײַ די סאַדעגערער. ווי עס דערציילט זײַן זון, איציק גאָטעסמאַן, האָט יונהס טאַטע אָנגעשטעלט אַ גמרא־מלמד צו לערנען מיט אים ווײַל קיין ישיבֿה איז אין סערעט נישט געווען. אַפֿילו מיט יאָרן שפּעטער, ווען יונה האָט שוין אויסשטודירט אויף דאָקטער און מער נישט געפֿירט קיין פֿרום לעבן, אַז ער איז געפֿאָרן צו גאַסט צו טאַטע־מאַמע האָט דער טאַטע אָנגעשטעלט פֿאַר אים אַ גמרא־לערער.
אונדזער שרײַבערין מרים האָפֿמאַן דערציילט אַז איר מאַן, מענדל ז״ל, אויך אַן אָפּשטאַמיקער פֿון די וויזשניצער חסידים, האָט געטאָן דאָס זעלבע. נישט געקוקט אויף דעם וואָס ער האָט נאָכן חורבן (בפֿרט נאָך דעם וואָס ער האָט אָנגעוווירן זײַן טאַטע־מאַמע, זײַן 12־יעריק ברידערל בנימעלע און דרײַ שוועסטער אין גאַזקאַמער) אָפּגעוואָרפֿן זײַן אמונה און אַפֿילו געהייסן זײַן פֿרוי נישט פּראַווען קיין שבת אָדער האַלטן אַ כּשרע קיך אויס כּעס צום אייבערשטן, פֿלעגט ער יעדן פּסח זיך אָנטאָן אַ יאַרמלקע און אָפּריכטן דעם גאַנצן סדר אויפֿן אַלטן שטייגער.
אויך מײַן טאַטע האָט יעדעס יאָר אָנגעפֿירט מיט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר אויף לשון־קודש כאָטש ער איז, אין פֿאַרגלײַך מיט יונהן און מענדלען, דווקא נישט דערצויגן געוואָרן אין אַ פֿרומער היים. ווי אַ דערוואַקסענער האָט ער זיך אַליין אויסגעלערנט ווי אָפּצוריכטן דעם סדר — מסתּמא טאַקע פֿון זײַן שוואָגער יונה — ווײַל ער האָט געוואָלט אַז דער סדר זאָל האָבן אַ דורותדיק פּנים.
מיט אַנדערע ווערטער, אין יענע יאָרן איז געווען אָנגענומען אַז איינער וואָס האַלט זיך פֿאַר אַ פֿולשטענדיקן סעקולערן ייִד קען נאָך אַלץ, כאָטש איין מאָל אַ יאָר, אָנפֿירן מיט אַ רעליגיעזע צערעמאָניע (אַפֿילו אַ דרײַ־שעהיקן ריטואַל ווי דער סדר), כאָטש עס דערמאָנט גאָט אויף שריט און טריט.
אַן אַטעיִסט וואָלט אפֿשר געשטעלט די פֿראַגע: וואָס איז דער שׂכל פֿון מאַכן ברכות און דורכפֿירן רעליגיעזע ריטואַלן ווען מע גלייבט אַליין נישט אין דעם? איז דאָס נישט אַ מין נישט־אויסגעהאַלטנקייט? מײַן טאַטע ע״ה פֿלעגט, למשל, יעדן שבת מאַכן קידוש און המוציא אויף אַזאַ נאַטירלעכן אופֿן, אַז איך בין געווען זיכער ער איז אַ גלייביקער. און דערפֿאַר ווען איך האָב צו 17 יאָר אַליין זיך פֿאַראינטערעסירט אין גײַסטיקע ענינים און געפּרוּווט פֿאַרפֿירן אַ שמועס מיט אים וועגן דעם, האָט ער פּלוצלינג אויסגערופֿן: „פֿאַר וואָס פֿרעגסטו מיך די אַלע שאלות? דו ווייסט דאָך, אַז איך בין אַן אַטעיִסט!‟
„דו ביסט אַן אַטעיִסט?‟ האָב איך איבערגעפֿרעגט, אַ פֿאַרחידושטע. „פֿאַר וואָס זשע האָסטו די אַלע יאָרן געמאַכט קידוש און המוציא יעדן שבת?‟
זײַן ענטפֿער: „צוליב אײַך!‟
לאַנגע יאָרן האָב איך איבערגעקלערט וואָס עס מיינט טאַקע דער „צוליב אײַך‟. הייסט עס, אַז ער אַליין האָט נישט הנאה געהאַט דערפֿון? אַז דאָס איז בלויז געווען אַ מיטל צו פֿאַרבעסערן די שאַנסן אַז זײַנע קינדער זאָלן זיך שטאַרק אידענטיפֿיצירט ווי ייִדן?
אַז איך קלער איצט וועגן דעם, זעט מיר אויס אַז עס זענען מסתּמא געווען עטלעכע סיבות פֿאַר וואָס די דרײַ וועלטלעכע ייִדן (צוויי פֿון זיי — געשוווירענע אַטעיִסטן) און אַ סך אַנדערע פֿון זייער דור, זענען געווען גרייט אָנצופֿירן מיט אַ רעליגיעזן סדר. ערשטנס, ווי מײַן טאַטע האָט געזאָגט, האָבן זיי עס געטאָן פֿאַר זייערע קינדערס וועגן. ס׳שטייט דאָך בפֿירוש געשריבן אין דער הגדה: „והגדת לבנך — זאָלסט דערציילן דײַנע קינדער וואָס ס׳איז געשען אין לאַנד מצרים‟.
נו, אויב אַזוי, האָבן זיי דאָך געקענט פּשוט דערציילן די געשיכטע פֿון די ייִדן אין מצרים און זייער באַפֿרײַונג אויף אַ סעקולערן אופֿן, אָן צו דערמאָנען גאָט בכלל. זיי האָבן געקענט ניצן די הגדה אַרויסגעגעבן פֿונעם אַרבעטער־רינג אָדער אַן אַנדער סעקולערער ייִדישער אינסטיטוציע. זיי האָבן דאָס אָבער נישט געטאָן. יאָ, אויפֿן סדר־טיש זענען טאַקע געלעגן די וועלטלעכע הגדות, כּדי מע זאָל קענען זינגען בציבור די שיינע מאָדערנע ייִדישע לידער ווי אַבֿרהם רייזענס „אויפֿן ניל‟, דוד עדעלשטאַדטס „אין דעם לאַנד פֿון פּיראַמידן‟ און יצחק לוקאָווסקיס „חד גדיא‟. די וועלטלעכע הגדה איז אָבער בלויז געווען אַ צוגאָב צום סדר, נישט דער הויפּטטעקסט.
מיט אַנדערע ווערטער, די אָ דרײַ וועלטלעכע ייִדיש־רעדנדיקע ייִדן האָבן געוואָלט ביידע: סײַ דעם כּמעט צוויי טויזנט־יאָריקן נוסח, סײַ די וועלטלעכע ייִדישע עלעמענטן.
אויב אַזוי איז די כּוונה, אַ פּנים, געווען עפּעס שטאַרקערס ווי בלויז איבערגעבן די געשיכטע פֿון יציאת־מצרים. ס׳איז אויך געווען אַן אופֿן צו ווײַזן דעם ייִנגערן דור ווי רײַך און ווי טיף איז די ייִדישע טראַדיציע; אַז ייִדיש איז נישט בלויז אַ לשון נאָר אַ גאַנצע קולטור, וואָס איז אָנגעזאַפּט מיט רעליגיעזן וויסן; אַז אַ ייִד דאַרף קענען, אָדער כאָטש זײַן היימיש מיט, דעם רעליגיעזן אַספּעקט פֿון דער ייִדישער טראַדיציע, אַפֿילו אויב ער אַליין איז נישט קיין פֿרומער.
פֿון מײַן זײַט בין איך גאָר צופֿרידן וואָס איציק גאָטעסמאַן האָט אָנגעהאַלטן די רעקאָרדירונג פֿון זײַן טאַטן. איצט קען איך — און ווער נאָך עס וויל נאָר — זיך אויסלערנען דעם סדר־נוסח פֿון די אַמאָליקע בוקאָווינער ייִדן און דערבײַ באַרײַכערן דעם אייגענעם סדר.
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Iran War Increases Threat to Sweden, Security Service Says
Swedish Security Service Chief Charlotte von Essen speaks next to Fredrik Hallstroem, chief of operations, during a press conference where the Swedish Security Service (SAPO) presents the situational picture of the country’s security, in Stockholm, Sweden, March 18, 2026. Photo: TT News Agency/Claudio Bresciani via REUTERS
Sweden‘s Security Service (SAPO) warned on Wednesday of increased threats to the Nordic nation from the war in Iran, including risks to Jewish targets, as it released its annual national security assessment.
“History has shown that a desperate and pressured regime can be a dangerous regime,” SAPO operative chief Fredrik Hallstrom told a press conference, referring to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Iran has long been considered a serious threat, and Swedish authorities have noted how criminal networks – already at the center of a decade-long surge in gang-related violence – have been exploited by state actors to carry out attacks.
“The US-Israeli military operation against Iran, and the countermeasures carried out by Iran, have increased the threat against American, Israeli, and Jewish targets in Sweden,” Security Service Chief Charlotte von Essen said in the report.
In recent years, the agency has also highlighted threats from China and, above all, Russia, which it describes as increasingly willing to take risks in support of its war in Ukraine — including through hybrid operations across Europe.
“Overall, we expect that the threat levels against Sweden will continue to deteriorate in the coming years,” von Essen said, adding that Russia was regarded as a primary driver.
While it is difficult to determine what can be linked to a particular actor, Sweden assesses that Russia is behind several sabotage incidents in Europe targeting critical infrastructure, the security service said. Moscow has denied any involvement.
The agency said it has reviewed hundreds of cases of suspected sabotage in Sweden, including of underwater cables, electricity substations and water-treatment facilities.
“It has so far not been possible to link any physical sabotage to a foreign power,” it said.
The comments came as Iran executed a Swedish citizen on Wednesday, according to Sweden‘s foreign minister, who added that she had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm to condemn the decision.
The person, who was not named, was arrested in Iran in June of last year and Sweden has repeatedly raised the case with Iranian officials, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.
“The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel, and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances,” Stenergard said.
The legal proceedings leading up to the execution did not meet the standards of due process, she added.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned the execution in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“The appalling human rights situation in Iran and the alarming increase in executions are intolerable and show the regime’s true colors,” she said, sending condolences to the family of the citizen.
The Swedish foreign ministry and the Iranian embassy in Stockholm did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters via phone and email.
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Israel Doubles Troops in Hezbollah Fight, Searches Homes in South Lebanon
Israeli soldiers walk next to military vehicles on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, amid escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, and amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in northern Israel, March 16, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israel has more than doubled the number of troops along its border with Lebanon since March 1 and they are searching homes in southern Lebanese villages that the military has ordered evacuated, a senior Israeli commander said on Wednesday.
As Israeli warplanes pound Beirut in operations against Hezbollah that have become the deadliest spillover of the US-Israeli war on Iran, heavy smoke could be seen rising from villages in southern Lebanon as troops fired artillery across the border.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled southern Lebanon since Israel ordered people to clear the area south of the Litani River, viewed by Israel as a stronghold of Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. The Shi’ite Islamist group has been firing rockets toward Israel since joining the war in support of Iran on March 2.
‘DEFENSIVE POSITIONS’ INSIDE LEBANON
“The plan is to make sure that Hezbollah does not have military infrastructure,” said the commander, whose name was withheld by the Israeli military on security grounds.
Speaking to Reuters in Eilon, an Israeli town four kilometers from the border, the commander, who is responsible for infantry warfare in Lebanon, declined to say how many troops Israel had now deployed in the area.
Describing the military’s fortifications inside Lebanon as “defensive positions,” he said troops were searching “the villages to see if Hezbollah hid weapons or communications centers.”
Asked if that included searching houses that residents had fled following Israeli orders, the commander said: “In some of the cases they hid their weapons in houses. We have no choice but to make sure that house is not a military installation.”
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of operations in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military says.
At least 968 people in Lebanon have been killed since the start of Israel‘s attacks, Lebanese authorities say.
Hezbollah has not provided regular updates on deaths among its fighters. On Monday, a Hezbollah official told Reuters that at least 46 had been killed so far.
LEBANESE VILLAGE OF KHIYAM AN INITIAL TARGET
The Israeli military is advancing slowly through southern Lebanon, aiming to completely clear the town of Khiyam as a first step before advancing toward the Litani River, according to a Lebanese security source and a foreign official tracking developments on the ground.
In response to a question on whether Israel intended to establish positions up to the Litani, the commander said it was not his decision. If troops receive orders, he added, they are “prepared to do all kind of operations.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on its operations in Khiyam, five kilometers inside the Lebanese border from the Israeli town of Metula.
Along the border near Metula, Reuters saw several Israeli military fortifications dug into hillsides, filled with rows of tanks, armed personnel carriers, and bulldozers.
Smoke rose from Khiyam throughout the day on Wednesday, and many of the buildings on the southern side of the town had been reduced to rubble. A neighboring town remains in ruins from Israel‘s attacks in 2024.
‘EVERY FIVE MINUTES YOU CAN HEAR THE BOMBS’
Israel‘s northern border area with Lebanon is known as the Upper Galilee, its rolling hills offering vantages into southern Lebanese villages now occupied and bombarded by Israeli troops.
Near Metula, Israeli Apache helicopters and jets were making near-constant sorties on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the sounds of rocket fire from Lebanon interspersed with the booms of Israeli artillery fire.
For residents of Israel‘s far north, the current war with Hezbollah has seen less rocket fire than during a year of fighting that ended in 2024.
Hezbollah‘s ability to launch missiles has largely been degraded, but it still retains capacity to strike areas deep inside Israel, Israeli officials say.
Ofer Moskovitz, 60, who works at an avocado farm in the area, and said being so close to the border meant he had little time to run to a bomb shelter when sirens signaled incoming Hezbollah fire.
Near his farm, the military dug out a muddy fortification from where troops fired artillery across the border.
“Every five minutes you can hear the bombs,” he said.