(Jun. 5, 2026 \/ JNS)\n <\/p>\n
An Israel Defense Forces officer was killed in combat in southern Lebanon on Thursday after a Hezbollah terrorist fired an anti-tank guided missile at an Israeli tank operating north of the Litani River.<\/p>\n
The fallen soldier was identified as Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lemberg, 21, of Mishmar HaShiv\u2019a, an armored corps officer in the 75th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade, the IDF said.<\/p>\n
According to the military, the missile struck the tank at approximately 4 p.m. Following the attack, Israeli forces carried out air and artillery strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in the area.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the fallen officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hearts ache over the fall of Armored Corps officer Capt. Eitan Shmuel Lemberg, of blessed memory, who fell in battle in southern Lebanon,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cTogether with all citizens of Israel, my wife and I send our deepest condolences to his family and share in their profound grief. Eitan, of blessed memory, from Mishmar HaShiv\u2019a, was a brave commander who led his soldiers on the front lines of battle to protect the security of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe will always remember his heroism and his sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The total death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the War of Redemption\u2014which was triggered by Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre\u2014now stands at 952, according to official IDF data.<\/p>\n
Lemberg\u2019s death came a day after Israel and Lebanon agreed to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire framework contingent on Hezbollah halting attacks, withdrawing from southern Lebanon and disarming, with the Lebanese Armed Forces deploying to designated areas in the south. Hezbollah subsequently rejected the proposal and continued its attacks.<\/p>\n
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said the agreement was based on \u201ca clear principle: Hezbollah must stop firing, withdraw from southern Lebanon, and be disarmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Leiter, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem publicly condemned the agreement on Thursday morning, while Hezbollah drones were launched at Israeli targets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael will defend its citizens. Lebanon deserves a future shaped by its government\u2014not by an Iranian-backed terrorist organization,\u201d Leiter wrote on X.<\/p>\n
He added that there had been \u201creal hope at the negotiating table for a new chapter of security and peace,\u201d but warned that \u201cHezbollah and Iran are trying to destroy that hope. They must not succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Jun. 5, 2026 \/ JNS) An Israel Defense Forces officer was killed in combat in southern Lebanon on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-477112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}