Hezbollah releases alleged footage of explosion that killed Brig.-Gen. Gerstein
Al-Manar TV network, owned by Shiite terror group, publishes footage it alleges showed explosion that killed top IDF commander in Lebanon Gerstein, 3 others exactly 19 years prior; footage could not be independently verified.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar television network aired Wednesday footage allegedly showing the incident that claimed the life of Brig.-Gen. Erez Gerstein, who was killed when an explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Lebanon on February, 28, 1999—precisely 19 years before the footage was released.
The Al-Manar report claimed that Hezbollah terrorists would place explosive devices on the sides of roads where IDF forces were known to travel.
The video—whose reliability could not be independently verified—showed smoke plumes coming from the vehicle in which Gerstein allegedly traveled. The documentation, the Hezbollah-affiliated network said, was published for the first time almost two decades after the incident.
Brig.-Gen. Gerstein, then head of the Lebanon Liaison Unit, was traveling at the front of a vehicle convoy returning from visiting the home of a slain South Lebanon Army (SLA) fighter.
Soldiers reaching his Mercedes, thrown to the side of the road by the explosion, could do nothing. Apart from Gerstein, Warrant Officer Imad Abu-Rish, Staff-Sergeant Omar El-Kabetz and Kol Israel northern region correspondent Ilan Roeh were also killed.
The four left from the Israeli city of Metula, which straddles the Lebanese border, to the Lebanese village of Hasbaya, where they visited combat soldiers from the IDF's Druze battalion.
The convoy then proceed to village of Kfarchouba for a condolences visit at the home of an SLA military man. The IDF convoy was making its way back to Israel at around noon when only 300 meters away from a United Nations position near Kaukaba a powerful explosive device disguised as a rock was set off.
Extracting casualties was exceedingly difficult as Hezbollah booby-trapped the surrounding area. Engineering Corps forces were rushed to the scene, and discovered two additional devices that had failed to detonate. Extraction finally took place under heavy Hezbollah mortar fire.
Then-GOC Northern Command and later chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi said, "We have lost four combat soldiers, four friends. You know them all—Brig.-Gen. Erez, beloved by all, an infantry commander and soldier, one of the best the IDF has ever known.
"Driver and security guard Imad, always at Erez's side. Signal operator Omer, and reporter—and our friend—Ilan Roeh, which we were all so used to seeing in briefings."
