Four soldiers fell in combat overnight amid Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, taking the death toll to 10 since the March operation began.
The soldiers were from the Nahal Brigade, and were killed while fighting in southern Lebanon. Three have been named with the fourth soldier's name yet to be released.
The men were named as Captain Noam Madmoni, 22, from Sderot, Staff Sergeant Ben Cohen, 21, from Lehavim, and Staff Sergeant Maxsim Entis, 21, from Bat Yam.
It comes just one day after the IDF announced that a 19-year-old soldier from Holon, Sergeant Liran Ben Zion, was killed by an anti-tank missile that hit a tank in Lebanon. Ben Zion was a fighter in the 9th Battalion of the Iron Footprints formation (401).
Meanwhile, both the UN and the IDF have confirmed they are launching separate investigations into the deaths of three peacekeepers working for Unifil, the UN’s operation in Lebanon.
The trio, all of whom were Indonesian, were killed in two separate explosions across 24 hours.
The IDF said both incidents were being “thoroughly reviewed in order to clarify the circumstances and determine whether they resulted from Hezbollah activity or from IDF activity”.
Following the launch of the US-Israeli operation against Iran, which saw the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah began attacking Israel.
Since then, the terror group has rained barrages of missiles and drones on Israel's north.
In response, Defence Minister Israel Katz has confirmed that IDF had advanced to form a “security buffer zone” in Lebanon up to the Litani River, the area south of which has long been a Hezbollah stronghold.
Katz said that the military would hold that territory “until security for the residents of the north [of Israel] is ensured”.
"The principle is clear: Where there is terror and missiles, there will be no homes and no residents, and the IDF will be inside,” he added.
And Prime Minister Netanyahu said he had instructed the IDF to expand the buffer zone to “thwart the threat of invasion and to keep the anti-tank missile fire away from our border”.
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