Four troops killed in southern Lebanon by accidental blast inside Hezbollah tunnel
Reservists believed to have triggered unmarked munitions left by other IDF soldiers, setting off Hezbollah cache and bringing tunnel down on troops
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Four Israeli reservists were killed in an operational accident in southern Lebanon Sunday, when munitions in a Hezbollah tunnel they were in exploded, the army said on Monday.
The deadly incident underlined lingering dangers for troops in south Lebanon, despite the ceasefire, as the military campaign against the Iran-backed terror group wraps up.
The four were all serving with the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 9263rd Battalion when they were killed in the blast, while searching for weapons in the Labbouneh area of southern Lebanon. Their bodies were trapped inside a destroyed tunnel for hours, until rescuers could reach them.
While carrying out searches in the Labbouneh area on Sunday afternoon, troops found the entrance to a Hezbollah tunnel where weapons were apparently being stored.
According to an initial IDF probe, as the troops entered the tunnel, there was a large explosion, which in turn caused the Hezbollah weapon stockpile to detonate, bringing the walls and ceiling of the underground passage down on top of the troops. The collapse trapped the four soldiers; rescue operations to extract their bodies took some 12 hours.
The military assessment found that the first blast was likely caused by explosives previously left behind by other Israeli forces who had operated there, which were unknown to the soldiers who entered the tunnel.
The IDF is investigating why the soldiers were not aware of the explosives placed there, including whether the troops who planted them marked the tunnel as rigged on the IDF’s mapping system.
The military is also investigating other avenues, including whether some other trigger caused the Hezbollah weapons in the tunnel to go off, like a booby trap — though that is considered less likely.
The four were named as Maj. (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, 43, from Zichron Yaakov; Cpt. (res.) Sagi Ya’akov Rubinshtein, 31, from Kibbutz Lavi; Master Sgt. (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose, 28, from Beit Shemesh; and Sgt. First Class. (res.) Erez Ben Efraim, 25, from Ramat Gan.
Zinershain was a company commander and Rubinshtein was a platoon commander.
The deaths bring Israel’s toll in over a year of fighting on and around its northern frontier to 80 soldiers, most of them killed in cross-border skirmishes, drone and missile attacks on Israel, and during close quarters combat during the ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Israel and Hezbollah agreed last month to stop over a year of fighting sparked by attacks the Iranian proxy began launching into Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas in Gaza. Under the terms of the ceasefire, the IDF has 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where troops have been operating since October to drive Hezbollah from the border region. Israel will then cede responsibility for the area to the Lebanese army.
Throughout the ceasefire, Israel has continued carrying out pinpoint strikes on suspected Hezbollah operatives and weapons shipments it says are violating the ceasefire’s terms, vowing to stymie attempts by the organization to regroup near the Israeli border or rearm.
On Sunday, the military said troops operating elsewhere in the western sector of southern Lebanon located and decomissioned several rocket launchers aimed at Israel. The soldiers also found and destroyed mortars, dozens of rockets, ammunition crates and assault rifles, according to the IDF.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel one day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, in support of its fellow Iran-backed terror group, drawing Israeli reprisals and leading to the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Fighting intensified in late September, with Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s leadership and launching a limited ground incursion on October 1 that has seen soldiers search villages for rockets and other arms held by the terror group, and tackle its vast terror tunnels and other infrastructure near the border.
