IDF says soldier killed in Hezbollah anti-tank cross-border missile attack
A day after incident on Lebanon border, military names Staff Sgt. (res.) Matanya Elster, 22
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces late Thursday announced that a soldier was killed in an anti-tank guided missile attack on the Lebanon border a day earlier.
Staff Sgt. (res.) Matanya Elster, 22, of the 221st Battalion of the Carmeli Brigade, from the northern town of Sde Ilan, was named by the IDF earlier on Thursday among soldiers killed during the ongoing fighting since the Hamas terror group’s surprise onslaught on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Another soldier was moderately wounded in the missile attack, claimed by the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group.
Following the attack on Wednesday, the IDF said it responded with a drone strike on a Hezbollah post, as fighting continued in southern Israel in the wake of the devastating attack launched by Hamas.
Recent days have seen several deadly clashes on the northern border, some of them claimed by Palestinian terror groups operating out of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, and others by Hezbollah themselves.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the anti-tank guided missile attack on an Israeli army post near the northern Israeli village of Arab al-Aramshe.
In a statement, the group said the attack was a response to the deaths of three of its members in Israeli strikes on Monday, which came in response to earlier clashes on the border.
Monday’s clashes also left three Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists dead. The three Hezbollah members were killed in Israel’s retaliatory bombing against the terror group’s sites.
Rockets were also launched at Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and Monday.
Hezbollah has largely sat out previous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terror groups, though it allowed local Palestinian factions to operate out of its territory in southern Lebanon.
The military has bolstered forces in northern Israel, amid fears the Lebanon-based terror group will open up a second front amid the war triggered by Saturday’s unprecedented invasion from Gaza.
Many residents of towns close to the border with Lebanon have left their homes over the past day, fearing further rocket attacks.
Also amid the tensions, there have been several alerts of possible incoming rockets or drones in northern Israel, but they were later said to be false alarms due to various misidentifications.
Air defense systems in the north are currently set to a high sensitivity, due to concern Hezbollah could join the fighting.
Hundreds of rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at southern and central Israel on Thursday, as fighting between the IDF and Palestinian terrorists continued for the sixth day.
On Saturday morning, Palestinian terrorists rampaged through the south of the country, killing some 1,000 people, most of them civilians, and taking an estimated 200 captives to Gaza. Since then the Israeli toll has risen to over 1,300 dead and thousands of injured.
