Israel announces soldier’s death after Hezbollah cross-border attack

The Israeli military and Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement have been exchanging near-daily fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 06 June 2024
Follow

Israel announces soldier’s death after Hezbollah cross-border attack

  • The army did not specify the exact location of the death of the soldier

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Thursday that a soldier had been killed in the north where troops are engaged in near-daily border clashes with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The soldier “fell fighting in the north” on Wednesday, the military said in a statement, after two explosive drones were launched from Lebanon against the Israeli town of Hurfeish.
The army did not specify the exact location of the death of the soldier, whom it identified on its website as Staff Sergeant Refael Kauders, aged 39.
The military correspondent of the Times of Israel newspaper reported that the soldier was killed in a drone attack which also left nine other troops wounded, one of the seriously.
Wednesday’s fatality takes the toll to at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians killed on the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, according to the military, since clashes with Hezbollah began after the war with Hamas broke out in Gaza on October 7.
In Lebanon, the violence has killed at least 455 people, mostly fighters but including 88 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Since the Gaza war broke out the Israeli military has lost 645 soldiers, including 294 in its campaign against Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants also abducted 251 people, Israelis and foreigners, 120 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 41 the military says are dead.
Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas and its bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have so far killed at least 36,586 people, also mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.


Israeli forces set up checkpoint, arrest residents inside southern Syria

Updated 5 sec ago
Follow

Israeli forces set up checkpoint, arrest residents inside southern Syria

  • An Israeli force comprising 7 military vehicles entered Wadi Al-Raqad and established a checkpoint on the Al-Raqad bridge
  • The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned Israeli incursions into its territory, including raids, arrests, and land razing in the south

LONDON: Israeli forces conducted an incursion into the Wadi Al-Raqad area in the Daraa countryside and arrested six residents from villages in Quneitra, southern Syrian Arab Republic.

On Wednesday, an Israeli force comprising seven military vehicles entered Wadi Al-Raqad and set up a checkpoint on the Al-Raqad bridge. Additionally, six other vehicles were stationed at the Tell Abu Al-Ghithar gate, as reported by the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Israeli forces arrested six individuals from the villages of Ain Al-Abd, Kodna, and Al-Asbah in the southern Quneitra countryside, and conducted another incursion into the village of Saida Al-Golan in the area.

The Syrian government has repeatedly condemned Israeli incursions into its territory, including raids, arrests, and land razing in the south, saying that they violate the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

Syria stresses that the presence of Israeli forces on its territory is “illegitimate” and that all Israeli measures in the region are “null and void and have no legal effect” under international law, the SANA added.