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A soldier from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been killed by Hezbollah in a drone strike near the Lebanon border, bringing the total number of Israeli troops killed in the war with the Iran-backed group to 24.
The IDF, in a statement, identified the deceased as 20-year-old Sergeant Rotem Yanai, who “fell during operational activity in northern Israel”.
It added that one reservist soldier was severely injured and another moderately injured in the same incident. The IDF also told AFP that Yanai was killed by a Hezbollah explosive drone.
Israel’s far-right finance minister said the only way to stop the attacks was the large-scale destruction of Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway.
“You know that the only way, at this time, to prevent our soldiers from being harmed is to raze 10 buildings in Beirut’s Dahiyeh for every drone,” Bezalel Smotrich wrote on Telegram, addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Credit: Anadolu.
“For every drone that strikes one of our soldiers, we must destroy a hundred buildings,” he added.
The comments came after the Israeli military said it had begun new strikes on Thursday morning targeting “Hezbollah infrastructure” around the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, following an evacuation warning to residents.
The previous day, Israel declared all areas south of Lebanon’s Zahrani River—about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border—as “combat zones” and told residents to evacuate ahead of operations against Hezbollah.
AFP reported that a total of 24 Israelis have been killed since hostilities began on March 2, including 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Wednesday reported that the overall death toll had risen to 3,269, an increase of 56 from the previous day following heavy Israeli strikes.
Despite a ceasefire declared in mid-April, Israel has continued military operations in Lebanon, while Hezbollah has regularly launched drones at Israeli troops and toward northern Israel.
