Hezbollah struck an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) tank at Kfar Tebnit in south Lebanon shortly after midnight on Friday 26 June1. The strike killed Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, 32, commander of the 52nd Battalion, along with three crew. The IDF named them as Staff Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, Staff Sgt. Liav Kababia, 20, and Staff Sgt. Nave Habshoosh, 20. Ben Simhon, who took command on 20 April, is the most senior Israeli officer killed since the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 16 June.
Hezbollah is the Iran-backed Lebanese movement that has fought Israeli forces along the border throughout the war. The crew had been clearing a fortified Hezbollah position on the Ali Taher Ridge, a hilltop south of the Litani River that the IDF now holds. An IDF drone killed a Hezbollah anti-tank commander in retaliation hours later. The loss moves the toll up the chain of command from the Givati Brigade soldier a Hezbollah drone killed two days earlier.
The deal both sides signed required a ceasefire on every front, yet its most senior casualty fell on Lebanon, the one front Iran set as its precondition for nuclear talks. Lebanon's Round 5 talks in Washington had ended on Thursday 25 June with no joint statement and no map for an Israeli withdrawal to the Litani. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will accept nothing short of a full withdrawal, while Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his forces to hold their lines south of the Litani. A dead battalion commander on this front keeps the nuclear gate shut.
United Nations monitors have recorded an average of 12 children killed or maimed in Lebanon each day during the fighting, the civilian cost of a process both governments insist is still running2.
