Two IDF officers and two soldiers were wounded Thursday in a clash with a terrorist in southern Lebanon, the military said.
The IDF said the terrorist approached troops operating near Beit Yahoun, a village in southern Lebanon, and threw a grenade at them from inside a building. One officer was moderately wounded, while another officer and two soldiers were lightly wounded. The troops returned fire and killed the terrorist, the military said.
The IDF said the 769th Brigade combat team was operating in the area at the time. The fire brigade of the 91st Division later struck several Hezbollah targets in the area with artillery and airstrikes.
Lebanese media reported several Israeli strikes overnight, including two in Beit Yahoun, near Bint Jbeil, and additional strikes Friday morning in the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area.
The incident came during a week in which the military suffered casualties in several incidents.
Israeli strikes in Nabatieh al-Fawqa
Master Sgt. (res.) Basel Sweid, 32, of Peki’in, was killed Wednesday night when a military fuel tanker overturned near Rab El Thalathine in southern Lebanon, close to the Israeli community of Misgav Am.
Sweid was a driver in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade and was serving with the Golani Brigade combat team at the time of the accident, which occurred at 10:50 p.m. Another soldier was moderately wounded.
“There are people who do not wait to be called. They simply show up. Basel was exactly that kind of person,” said his uncle, Zaki Sweid.
Master Sgt. (res.) Basel Sweid
He said Sweid had volunteered to help the wounded and families of the children killed in the 2024 Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams, which left 12 children and teens dead, assisted Druze communities in Syria’s Sweida province and Mount Hermon villages, and left for reserve duty the day after Oct. 7.
Next week will mark 1,000 days since the start of the war, which began with the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel and expanded into sustained fighting in Lebanon.
Since then, Israel says it has dismantled much of the threat posed by Hezbollah before the war. The Iran-backed group had about 150,000 rockets, threatened a cross-border assault using its elite Radwan force and deterred Israel from removing two tents it had set up in Israeli territory. Israeli officials now say the group has no effective leadership, fewer than 10,000 rockets and that most of its force is north of the Litani River.
IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon
(Photo: IDF)
Meanwhile, IDF troops remain deep inside Lebanon as negotiations continue on a phased arrangement under which they would withdraw from agreed points and be replaced by the Lebanese army.
Israeli officials say some of the military gains made after 2024's Operation Northern Arrows have eroded. Although the IDF holds positions deeper inside Lebanon, it no longer has the broad freedom of action it had under the November 2024 agreement.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has said Israel will not leave southern Lebanon, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of remaining in a buffer zone. Neither has committed to avoiding a withdrawal from the current Israeli line, and neither has said precisely where such a buffer zone would run.
IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon
(Photo: IDF)
Reports Thursday described a difficult atmosphere in talks with Lebanon in Washington, though U.S. pressure may lead to compromises. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon were nearing understandings on pilot areas for Hezbollah’s disarmament. In those areas, Israeli forces are expected to withdraw from zones that have already been cleared, with the Lebanese army taking their place.
Lebanese media also reported Thursday that three people were killed and one wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle between the southern Lebanese villages of Mifdoun and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah. The strike followed another Iranian warning demanding an Israeli withdrawal.