IDF Givati Reconnaissance Battalion soldiers on Friday killed two Hezbollah gunmen in southeastern Lebanon who earlier in the day injured two of their officers in close-quarter combat, the Israeli military said.
After the encounter, in which one of the Givati officers was severely wounded and the battalion’s commander was lightly injured, the soldiers combed the Zawtar al-Sharqiyah area near Beaufort Castle northwest of Metula, and located and killed the terrorists.
Simultaneously, the soldiers struck terrorist infrastructure sites in the area, the IDF said.
The two officers were evacuated to the hospital and their families were notified of their condition, the army added.
In a separate incident on Thursday, an IDF officer was severely injured from the impact of a suspicious aerial target in Southern Lebanon.
Additionally, sirens warning of hostile aerial threats sounded overnight Friday and early on Saturday morning in northern Israel. In the first incident, the Israeli Air Force intercepted a hostile aircraft, and two additional aircrafts hit near the area in which IDF soldiers are operating in Southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported.
In the second incident, a hostile aircraft hit the ground near Israeli troops in Southern Lebanon. An air-raid siren sounded in the Moshav Zar’it area but the IDF noted that no aircraft crossed into Israeli territory.
Summarizing the activities of the army’s Northern Command in Lebanon over the past week, the IDF said the IAF struck more than 650 Hezbollah targets and that more than 125 terrorists were killed in Southern Lebanon.
The ground forces continued to dismantle terrorist infrastructure sites in Southern Lebanon, removing threats to Israel’s northern residents and to the troops operating in the area, the military added.
IDF mistakenly strikes Lebanese Army vehicle
On Saturday, the IDF struck a vehicle that was carrying two officers and an enlisted soldier of the Lebanese Armed Forces near the area of Tebnit north of Beaufort Castle.
The Israeli military said that the incident is under review and described the events that led to the decision to strike the vehicle:
“The vehicle was traveling through an active combat zone that had been evacuated. The IDF had received concrete indications that Hezbollah would direct fire toward IDF soldiers from the same area. Additional intelligence and operational information indicate that Hezbollah conducts extensive terrorist operations in this area,” the military said in a statement.
“Following the identification of the vehicle, and in light of the concrete indication of Hezbollah fire in the area alongside the threat posed to the soldiers, the vehicle was struck,” it added.
“It should be emphasized that the area is an active combat zone, and movement in the area requires coordination with the IDF. The IDF is reviewing the incident, and lessons will be learned accordingly. The IDF operates against the Hezbollah terrorist organization, not against the Lebanese Army.”
Eleven states urge Hezbollah to lay down arms
Meanwhile on Thursday, the foreign ministers of 11 countries issued a joint statement calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah.
The ministers of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, as well as the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, said that they “support the efforts of the Lebanese government to extend its authority throughout the country in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, including through the strengthening of Lebanese state institutions and security forces and the disarmament of Hezbollah. Hezbollah must cease its attacks on Israel.”
The statement further called on Israel to “respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to stop its military escalation.”
The diplomats stressed their support for the efforts to reach a ceasefire that would secure a path “toward long-term stability and security for both Lebanon and Israel.”
