Military officials were quoted as saying that the forces had surrounded the village and seized some houses on the outskirts, imposing a closure on Hezbollah guerillas. But the army said that fighting with guerrillas was still underway.

"There is fighting from every direction, including from the air," Lieut. Col. Itzik Ronen, a deputy brigade commander of an unit operating in the area, told Army Radio.

"We are hitting terrorists, we have also taken several prisoners in this fighting. The enemy has more than a few casualties, and overall we are now stabilizing the situation to completely take over the village," he said.

Four IDF soldiers have been lightly injured in exchanges of fire in southern Lebanon. They have been taken to a hospital in Nahariya for emergency treatment.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes struck 15 rocket-launching sites northeast of the Lebanese town of Tyre Tuesday morning as well as various Hezbollah targets, including vehicles, weapons storage sites and buildings.

Two IDF soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded on Monday during combat in Bint Jbail.