(Jerusalem) The Israeli army announced Thursday the death of one of its soldiers, killed in an attack by Hezbollah in northern Israel, the scene of almost daily cross-border clashes for almost eight months between the Israeli army and the Lebanese movement, ally of Palestinian Hamas.
Earlier Thursday, the army first announced the soldier’s “in combat” death. On his website he is identified as Staff Sergeant Refael Kauders, aged 39.
Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said at a press conference held after the release of the army statements that the soldier was killed Wednesday during a Hezbollah drone attack in the town of Hurfeish, near Mount Meron.
“This is another example of how Hezbollah is trying to break through Israel’s defenses,” the army spokesman said.
“The result of this attack is obviously terrible since a soldier was killed,” he told reporters, “Hezbollah is persisting, and for eight months it has been intensifying its attacks against Israel almost every day.” .
On Wednesday, in a climate of latent war with Hezbollah, the army announced that “two explosive drones launched (from Lebanon) had struck the area of Hurfeish”, a Druze town located less than 5 km from the demarcation line with the Lebanon.
According to the military correspondent of the daily Times of Israel, nine other soldiers were injured, including one seriously in these drone attacks.
The Israeli army says it has lost 645 soldiers since the start of the war triggered on October 7 by the surprise attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
This war resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 people taken as hostages on October 7, 120 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 41 have died according to the Israeli army.
In response, Israel launched an offensive of unprecedented scale against the Gaza Strip, where it says it wants to eliminate Hamas. Israeli bombings and military operations have so far killed 36,654 people there, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
On the Lebanese border, cross-border clashes between the Israeli army and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah or other armed groups have been an almost daily occurrence since October 7.
In almost eight months, this violence has left more than 450 dead in Lebanon, most of them combatants, and nearly 90 civilians, according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed in these clashes, according to the authorities.
The US State Department on Wednesday warned of an “escalation” on the Israel-Lebanon border, stressing that it would jeopardize Israel’s security, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was ” ready for a very intense operation” on its northern flank.