Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and two dozen others were wounded by a drone attack launched from Iraq, the IDF said on Friday.
The slain soldiers were named as:
Sgt. Daniel Aviv Haim Sofer, 19, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th “Gideon” Infantry Battalion, from Ashkelon; and
Cpl. Tal Dror, 19, also of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Jerusalem.
Two explosive-laden drones were launched in the attack on Thursday morning; one was intercepted and the other hit a military base in the Golan Heights.
Last week, Israeli fighter jets intercepted a drone over the southern Golan Heights that had crossed the border from the east, in what was the fifth such incident in a few days.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia, took credit for the attack, claiming the target had been a base belonging to the Golani Brigade.
On Sunday, the IDF intercepted a drone fired towards Israel from the direction of the Red Sea. An Israeli Navy Sa’ar 4.5 missile boat downed the unmanned aerial vehicle “outside the country’s borders,” according to the military.
Air-raid sirens sounded in Eilat and surrounding areas. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched a drone at a “vital target” in the Red Sea resort city.
On Sept. 25, two Israelis were lightly wounded in a suicide drone attack on Eilat. The IDF stated that at least two explosive-laden drones had been launched at the Jewish state “from the east.”
On Sept. 16, Israeli Air Force fighter jets shot down a drone from Iraq that was approaching the Sea of Galilee. The lake is situated in the northeastern part of the country between the Golan Heights and the Galilee.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military named eight soldiers who were killed fighting the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Southern Lebanon.
The fallen soldiers were named as Capts. Eitan Itzhak Oster, Harel Etinger and Itai Ariel Giat; Sgts. 1st Class Noam Barzilay, Or Mantzur and Nazaar Itkin; and Staff Sgts. Almken Terefe and Ido Broyer.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his “deepest condolences to the families of our heroes who fell today in Lebanon.”
“May God avenge them. May their memory be a blessing,” the prime minister said. “We’re in the heat of a grueling war against Iran’s axis of evil, aimed at destroying us. That will not happen because we shall stand together, and with God’s help, we shall emerge victorious together.”
The death toll among Israeli troops on all fronts since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre stands at 726, according to official military data.
Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May.
