From the Liveblog of
Friday, April 4, 2025
Senior IDF officer who allowed 71-year-old researcher to enter Lebanon, where he was killed, says he thought he was a reservist
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Col. (res.) Yoav Yarom, the Golani Brigade’s chief of staff who accompanied civilian researcher Zeev Erlich into southern Lebanon last November, where he was killed by a Hezbollah terrorist, tells Channel 12’s “Uvda” investigative program that he allowed the 71-year-old archeology expert to join troops in Lebanon for an “educational tour” because he believed him to be an IDF reservist.
According to Yarom, Erlich would show up every week “with a uniform, a helmet and a weapon,” and would talk in various groups about where he’d been and with which senior IDF commander.
He says that Erlich, who had independently published dozens of academic papers on archaeological research in the West Bank and other parts of the region, would regularly “give educational tours” to soldiers, including in one instance, in Maroun al-Ras, just past the Israel-Lebanon border.
“No one in the IDF, no commander, would have prevented Jabo (Erlich’s nickname) from entering,” Maroun al-Ras,” he says, defending the decision. “As far as I was concerned, he was a reservist.”
The incident in which Erlich was killed occurred in the village of Shamaa, in the Tyre District of southern Lebanon, some five kilometers from the border with Israel.
Despite the belief that the village had been cleared of threats, two Hezbollah operatives were hiding at the site and opened fire at the researcher, along with Yarom and other soldiers who were accompanying them. Along with Erlich, Sgt. Gur Kehati was also killed in the incident.
While Yarom acknowledges that he “exceeded” his authority by allowing Erlich to accompany troops to the village, he claims to Uvda that the area was “no more dangerous than any other place Jaobo entered in the past 40 years.”
“The encounter [with Hezbollah terrorists] wasn’t because he was a civilian,” Yarom insists. “They died in a clash with an enemy inside the company’s holding area. That’s why they died.”
The Times of Israel Community.