IDF Casualties in Lebanon: Son of Israeli General Killed
Hezbollah continues its resistance against Israeli aggression in southern Lebanon. Israeli occupation forces (IDF) soldiers are falling one by one in battles there.
The Times of Israel reports that one Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded in a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack in southern Lebanon on Thursday evening. This is the second death in the Israeli military ranks that day.
The soldier killed was from the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armoured Brigade, from Jerusalem. He is the fourth soldier to be killed in the conflict with Hezbollah that began on 2 March. At that time, the Hezbollah group began firing rockets and drones at Israel to defend Iran, which was under attack by the US and Israel.
The soldier was the son of Brigadier General Yair Volansky, Financial Oversight Supervisor of the Defence Company, who previously commanded the 401st Armoured Brigade.
According to the IDF’s initial investigation, the Hezbollah operation launched two anti-tank missiles from an area north of the Litani River in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, targeting an Israeli Merkava tank.
The first missile was intercepted by the Merkava’s active protection system, while the second struck the tank, killing Volansky and injuring other crew members, according to the investigation. The IDF stated that two officers and two soldiers from the 77th Battalion were lightly injured in the incident.
Hezbollah had previously claimed to have hit 10 Israeli tanks in the operation. Two Israeli bulldozers were also struck by Hezbollah missiles.
Earlier that day, the military said an IDF soldier was killed overnight in a firefight with Hezbollah agents in southern Lebanon.
Throughout Thursday, Hezbollah fire continued to strike Israel; the group launched more than 100 rockets and killed a man and seriously injured another in the northern city of Nahariya. Sirens sounded in the port city of Haifa on Thursday evening.
A man in his 50s was also killed after being seriously injured in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the city of Nahariya on Thursday, rescue services said. The Nahariya city council said local resident Peretz left behind parents, a wife, and four children.
According to police, Peretz was riding his bicycle when the sirens sounded and tried to enter the nearest shelter but did not make it in time. The rocket struck a car park outside a residential building where he and the seriously injured man were seeking shelter.
Israel has responded to the attacks with massive airstrikes on Hezbollah targets and by deepening its presence in Lebanon. Lebanese government media said Israeli strikes killed at least five people on Thursday, two of them in an attack on a building in the southern Nabatiyeh area. So far, more than 1,000 Lebanese residents have been killed by Israel in strikes on the southern part. Hundreds of thousands of residents have also been forced to flee.