IDF soldier killed in Hezbollah gunfight; terror group fires rockets, drones at north

An IDF soldier was killed during a firefight with Hezbollah operatives in southern Lebanon overnight, the military said Thursday, as the terror group continued to barrage northern cities and towns with rocket fire and drones.

The slain soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Ori Greenberg, 21, of the Golani Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit, from Petah Tikva.

He was the third IDF soldier to be killed in Israel’s renewed ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

According to an initial IDF probe of the incident, at around 2 a.m., the Golani soldiers identified several Hezbollah operatives in their area of operations in southern Lebanon.

The troops exchanged fire with the Hezbollah gunmen, and during the battle, Greenberg was killed and another soldier was lightly hurt. The IDF says the latter did not require hospitalization.

The military said the Golani soldiers managed to kill several of the Hezbollah operatives during the clash, and were searching the area for the remaining gunmen.

“Ori was a boy who overcame all obstacles and all his fears,” his father Yaron told the Ynet news site. “He always pushed himself forward with determination, with love, with a good heart. And they told us that’s how he met his death.”

The fallen soldier’s sister described the moment military representatives arrived to tell them of Ori’s death.

“This morning at 6 a.m. they came to inform us,” said Noa. “My mother screamed. We didn’t think something like this could happen. Our world was destroyed.”

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah terror group fired rockets and drones at northern communities throughout the day, having targeted central Israel overnight.

Two people were lightly injured in the Western Galilee by falling fragments following the interception of a Hezbollah drone, while an 11-year-old girl went into heart failure during incoming rocket sirens in Safed, and was hospitalized in serious condition after medics managed to restart her heart.

The IDF believes Hezbollah still possesses thousands of short-range rockets, along with hundreds of longer-range projectiles.

The military has said that Hezbollah is launching most of its attacks from deeper within southern Lebanon, and not from close to the border.

The attacks came more than three weeks after Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, renewed its rocket and drone fire on Israel amid the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic.

Since then, Hezbollah has been firing an average of about 150 rockets per day, according to the IDF. Roughly two-thirds of the daily rocket fire has been directed at Israeli forces operating in southern Lebanon and along the border, with the remaining third aimed at Israel.

In response, the IDF has deepened its presence on the ground in southern Lebanon and has conducted heavy airstrikes on thousands of Hezbollah targets, calling on large numbers of civilians to evacuate southern Lebanon.

During operations overnight in south Lebanon, an IDF officer was moderately wounded by shrapnel as a result of fire carried out by other Israeli forces, the military said.

In a separate incident, 15 troops operating in south Lebanon were taken to a hospital with suspected hypothermia. The IDF said one soldier was listed in moderate condition, while the others are in good condition.

The military has said that it has killed around 700 Hezbollah operatives, including hundreds of members of the terror group’s elite Radwan Force, since hostilities escalated when the group began renewed attacks on Israel amid the war with Iran.

More than 2,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have also been struck, including hundreds of command centers, weapon depots, and rocket and missile launchers, according to the IDF.

On Thursday, the IDF published footage showing the demolition of a Hezbollah command center and a weapons depot in southern Lebanon.

The two sites were destroyed during operations by the Golani Brigade.

As talks to end the Iran war have gotten underway, Tehran has reportedly demanded that the Israel-Hezbollah conflict cease as part of a peace deal.

But on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was creating an expanded buffer zone in Lebanon to push back threats from Hezbollah anti-tank missiles. Now, he said, the focus is on “dismantling Hezbollah.”

“We are determined to do everything to fundamentally change the situation in Lebanon,” he promised.