By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Worthy News) – Lebanon-based Hezbollah, condemned as a terrorist organization by Israel, has claimed responsibility for killing an Israeli reservist soldier and injuring two others, one seriously.
An explosive-laden drone launched from Lebanon impacted near the northern Israeli community of Margaliot, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. The Iron Dome defense system intercepted a second drone, the IDF added.
The slain soldier was identified on Saturday evening as Warrant Officer (res.) Yehezkel Azaria, 53, of the 8th Armored Brigade’s 129th Battalion, from Petah Tikva. The wounded soldiers were of the Alexandroni Brigade’s 6609th Reconnaissance Battalion, Israeli media reported.
The cross-border violence came hours after Israel warned it would push away Hezbollah from the Lebanese border if the international community could not do so through diplomatic means.
War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, speaking during a visit to the city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha in Northern Israel’s Upper Galilee region, said he invited top Western diplomats to visit the area and see the threat posed by Hezbollah. “If the world doesn’t get Hezbollah away from the border, Israel will do it,” he warned.
“In response to Hezbollah’s aggression, the IDF strikes the terrorist organization’s military infrastructure and works to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel,” added IDF spokesperson Nir Dinar. “Any harm to civilians and other forces is unintentional. Such incidents are reviewed to improve operational precautions and to ensure accountability when necessary,” Dinar said.
Yet Israeli officials have reportedly been rebuked by the United States over these plans as Washington worries about Israel striking regular Lebanese Armed Forces positions.
US CRITICAL
“The United States has been clear, we do not want to see this conflict spread to Lebanon. And we continue to urge the Israelis to do all they can to be targeted and avoid civilians, civilian infrastructure, civilian farmland, the U.N., and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” the US National Security Council said.
The announcement came as a Hezbollah fighter was reportedly killed on Saturday during confrontations with the Israeli army in Lebanon’s border areas.
China’s news agency Xinhua quoted Hezbollah as saying that the group “mourned” one of its members without providing further details.
The militant group confirmed that its fighters attacked several Israeli targets on Saturday, resulting in casualties.
Xinhua quoted a Lebanese military source as saying that the Israeli forces on Saturday carried out a “series of air and artillery attacks” on border villages in southern Lebanon, “destroying” four houses and damaging 25.
Hezbollah reportedly carried more than 500 military attacks against nearly 60 Israeli positions and gatherings along the Lebanon-Israel borders since the October 7 massacres of about 1,200 people by Hamas in Israel.
The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have reportedly killed 155 people on the Lebanese side, including several journalists, security sources say.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Saudi Arabia has launched the largest reconstruction initiative in Syria since U.S. sanctions were lifted, positioning the kingdom as a central driver of Syria’s postwar recovery.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the United States has given Kyiv and Moscow another deadline to reach a peace agreement, proposing that the nearly four-year war should end by June, as Russia escalates air strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Wednesday with President Donald Trump at the White House, as negotiations with Iran enter a decisive and potentially volatile phase. The meeting, set for 11:00 a.m. Washington time, will mark Netanyahu’s seventh face-to-face encounter with Trump since the U.S. president began his second term, underscoring the unusually close relationship between the two leaders.
With the deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security only days away, Democrats have refused an offer from the White House to strike a compromise over Immigrations and Customs Enforcement changes.
President Donald Trump is weighing deploying a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East as the U.S. continues talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Republicans in Congress are pushing forward multiple bills that would standardize election security requirements nationwide.
Kenya has condemned as “unacceptable” the recruitment of its citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine, amid reports that several Kenyans have been killed or wounded on the battlefield as the war approaches its fourth anniversary.