⚔Apache downed, raid into Avivim

On 24 July 2006, after 4,500 raids and with the war entering its third week, Israel pushed special units and paratroopers with an armoured column on the Maroun al-Ras–Bint Jbeil axis; the mujahideen destroyed four Merkava tanks and downed an Apache helicopter carrying wounded (Israel said it hit the wires), and the troops entered from the settlement of Avivim, built on the land of Maroun al-Ras. Yedioth quoted Halutz: "We did not say we would completely eliminate Hezbollah's rockets and men."