Although the ceasefire in Lebanon was extended by 45 days, fighting has continued almost uninterrupted since it took effect about a month ago, claiming the lives of seven soldiers. Friends of Staff Sgt. Negev Dagan, who was killed by mortar fire near the Litani River last Thursday, told ynet that he had expressed concern before entering the area. “He said he was going into a dangerous place, he was worried,” they said.
Matan Peretz and Oren Shivat, Dagan’s friends from Moshav Dekel near the Gaza border, were both 17 on Oct. 7 and know the pain of loss firsthand.
“It’s something we’ll never forget,” Oren said. “The terrorists may not have physically entered the moshav, but in the end it’s inside all of us, because the whole area was affected. So many people we know, teachers, kids from school, friends, it’s inseparable from who we are.”
Matan said he had known Dagan since birth. “I was with him everywhere possible, we were even with him last weekend, before it happened. Negev was a good friend, a good kid you really can’t describe in words. He wanted to fulfill so many dreams, and in one moment it was over.”
Oren described Dagan as someone who always gave good advice. “He was the kind of person you enjoyed talking to,” he said. “He understood people.”
Dagan, a soldier in Golani Brigade’s 12th Battalion, fought in both Gaza and Lebanon.
“He had been through so much, and then suddenly this happened. We were shocked,” Matan said. “He used to come back here and say it wasn’t scary and that ‘we’re going all the way.’ But last weekend he said this deployment was going to be frightening.”
According to Matan, Dagan was expected to spend 28 days inside Lebanon.
“I don’t want to go into too many details, but he said he was really heading into a dangerous place and that this operation was going to be more complicated than the others he’d been through,” he said.
Oren said he spoke with Dagan shortly before he was killed.
“That whole weekend he was different, more tense,” he recalled. “It was hard for him to go back, something unusual that normally didn’t happen. On Sunday we talked on FaceTime for about an hour, about life and everything possible — cars, what we’d do after the army.”
Dagan told Oren he was about to enter the Litani River area.
“He said it was dangerous and that he’d be without his phone,” Oren said. “I tried to tell him, ‘Everything will be OK, Negev. You’re used to this. You’ll be strong, you’ll get through it. I believe in you.’”
“On Monday he called me again and said, ‘Listen, brother, I’m going in. I won’t talk to you for about 28 days.’ He told me he loved me. I told him, ‘I love you too, brother. Take care of yourself.’ That was it. I never spoke to him again. It was right before he went in.”
Dagan, who was 20 when he died, was the 19th Israeli soldier killed in Lebanon since the launch of Operation Rising Lion, and the sixth since the ceasefire began. Yesterday, the military cleared for publication that Capt. Maoz Israel Recanati was killed by an explosive drone strike in southern Lebanon.