An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday, the military said.
Master Sgt. (res.) Basil Sweid, 32, from the Druze city of Peki’in, was a driver in the IDF’s 75th Battalion. He fell during operational activity, the army said.
Preliminary findings indicate that he was killed in a road accident in the Shi’ite village of Rab El Thalathine, just east of the Israeli community of Misgav Am in the Galilee Panhandle, according to Israel’s Channel 12 broadcaster.
Another soldier was moderately wounded in the incident and was evacuated to the hospital.
The cause of the accident has not yet been established, according to the report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to the Sweid family.
Sweid was “a brave reservist fighter, filled with a sense of mission, who symbolized the unbreakable bond between the Druze community and the State of Israel and the eternal covenant between us... May his memory be blessed,” said Netanyahu.
“With great sadness and deep pain, we extend our sincere condolences to the Sweid family, and especially to the Peki’in family and all its residents, on the falling of a local, a reserve soldier, a virtuous man of good character,”
said the Peki’in Local Council of the Upper Galilee.
