1 Lebanese soldier killed, 2 wounded in Israeli strike on vehicle in southern Lebanon

A Lebanese soldier was killed on Wednesday morning in a strike on a military vehicle on the road linking Burj al-Muluk to Qlaya, in the Marjayoun district of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Army announced in a brief statement. In an earlier statement, the army reported that two people had been wounded.

The army identified the soldier killed near Burj al-Muluk as Abbas Ali Nahleh, who was 26 years old and had joined the ranks of the troop in 2022. Originally from Marjayoun, he was single, according to the biography published by the army. 

According to information from our correspondent Mountasser Abdallah, the vehicle hit by an Israeli strike was a “Humvee” containing an officer and two soldiers. The victim was mobilized in the Marjayoun barracks. The two wounded were hospitalized in Hasbaya.

The area in which the vehicle was located is four kilometers west of Khiam, where heavy fighting is pitting Hezbollah against the Israeli army, which is attempting to advance on the locality.

Strike on Sarafand

On Tuesday evening, three soldiers had already been killed in an Israeli bombardment of a troop checkpoint in Sarafand, southern Lebanon. The raid also left 17 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The three victims of the Sarafand strike were Chief Warrant Officer Ayman Abdellatif Rahal and Sergeants Adam Jerji Aoun and Ali Mohammad Harb. Chief Warrant Officer Rahal, a 42-year-old native of Sour, had joined the army in 2008. He was the father of two children. Sergeant Aoun, born in 1997, was originally from Ghazieh, in the Saida district. Their colleague Ali Harb, aged 30, was from Zawtar Sharqieh, in the Nabatieh district. 

Received in Yarze on Wednesday, the outgoing Lebanese Defense Minister, Maurice Slim, offered his condolences to the army's Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Aoun, for the soldiers killed in Israeli strikes.

Since the start of the war between Hezbollah and Israel, Israeli strikes have killed more than 20 soldiers and members of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa, including in fire on installations belonging to the Lebanese Army, which is not involved in the fighting.