Israeli army announces death of soldier in fighting in Lebanon

The Israeli army announced Wednesday the death of three soldiers, including a 70-year-old reservist, killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, bringing to 52 the number of its soldiers killed since the start of its ground offensive against Lebanese Hezbollah on September 30.

After the death of a 22-year-old reservist announced in the afternoon, the army announced late in the evening those of Zeev Erlich, a 70-year-old reservist, and another soldier whose identity was not confirmed. is not yet public.

Like the two others, Zeev Erlich died in fighting in southern Lebanon, she said in a statement.

The main body representing settlers in the occupied West Bank, the Yesha Council called Zeev Erlich a “pioneer of research in the geography, archeology and Jewish history of Judea and Samaria,” the name given by Israel to the occupied West Bank.

The septuagenarian lived in Ofra, one of the first Israeli settlements in this region.

The announcements come amid renewed efforts to establish a ceasefire in Lebanon, where the Israeli army is fighting the Islamist Hezbollah movement.

American envoy Amos Hochstein, who was expected in Israel this Wednesday, reported in the morning in Beirut “additional progress” around an American plan providing for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, based on UN Resolution 1701.

On October 8, 2023, the day after the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil that sparked the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah launched a “front of support” for the Palestinian movement by firing rockets from almost daily in northern Israel.

For months, relatively small-scale cross-border clashes between the Israeli army and Shiite movement fighters have displaced tens of thousands of residents across the dividing line between Israel and Lebanon. .

Saying it wanted to prevent Hezbollah from carrying out attacks on its soil and with the stated aim of allowing the safe return home of some 60,000 inhabitants of the north of the country, Israel launched an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23, and seven days later launched a ground offensive in the south of the country.