Total Hezbollah terrorists killed so far is between 300 – 400 according to IDF sources per Arutz Sheva. I would wager that it is higher, remember that Israeli artillery has been firing for almost three weeks now, and artillery accounts for %70 of casualties in most wars.

Against an opponent like Hezbollah who is not going to report their casualties as anything other than civilian deaths, if that, we will probably never gain an accurate count. I would say that things for Hezbollah are much worse than perceived.

Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who said that 300 of the enemy’s forces have been eliminated, revealed that IDF sources estimate the total number of Hizbullah fighters to be 2,000. “The objective is to hit the fighters and the weaponry of the Hizbullah,” Ramon told a Channel 10 interviewer, “and so far, we have done a pretty good job.”

The minister went on to say that Israel would “not return to a situation in which the Hizbullah does what it wants – kidnapping, killing or firing Katyushas at northern communities – and we sit by fearfully. Thanks to the decision of the prime minister, the rules of the game have changed. What was is not what will be.”

My guess is that in the current offensive the Israelis will take the heights on three sides of Bint Jbeil, isolating and neutralizing any forces there with heavy arty from the heights while a large force runs up the Syrian border to Bekaa valley, where Hezbollah has retreated to.

Meanwhile Haaretz reports on the Israeli commando raid in Bekaa, where soldiers where flown in by helicopter to assault Hezbollah holed up in a hospital there. The close air support by the IAF is “unprecedented”.

Lebanese army and security officials said a major Israel Defense Forces operation was underway against suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley late Tuesday. IDF troops thrust deep into the area, landing troops by helicopter in the Hezbollah heartland.

Lebanese security sources said IDF soldiers had landed by helicopter near Baalbek as aircraft launched several strikes in the region.

One Lebanese officer saying the Israel Air Force presence in the air above the ancient city was “unprecedented.

UPDATE: CNN reporting that IDF is reporting a number of militants were captured in Baalbeck. AP story here Jerusalem Post story here.

This quote from a hizbullah leader has me wondering if the commandos haven’t gotten back some people important to Israel:

Rahal said Hezbollah guerrillas were using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and dismissed as “untrue” reports that the commandos managed to snatch some patients from the hospital and spirit them away in helicopters.

Update: my hope that they had located and freed the soldiers ala Entebbe was forlorn, but perhaps the Hizbullah captured will prove valuable.

You also have to wonder what this “cooking gas” really was:

About six hours later, warplanes returned to attack Hermel again, hitting a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas tanks, security officials said. The canisters exploded, sending flames shooting up from the vehicle for nearly an hour. The driver had pulled over and exited the vehicle before the attack, and was not hurt, they said