JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Thursday a soldier had been killed in a drone strike launched by Hezbollah, the latest fatality in months of border clashes.

Staff Sergeant Refael Kauders “fell fighting in the north” on Wednesday, the military said on its website.

In a briefing to reporters, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said Kauders, 39, was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack that struck the northern Israeli town of Hurfeish.

“It had a devastating result, of course, of a soldier killed,” Lerner said.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the attack also left nine troops wounded, one of them seriously.

Lerner said that “Hezbollah... have for the last eight months been escalating almost every day their attacks against Israel” and “trying to penetrate Israel’s defensive mechanisms”.

The latest fatality takes the toll to at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians killed in Israel’s north, according to the military, since the clashes with Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, began on October 7.

In Lebanon, the cross-border violence has killed at least 455 people, mostly fighters but including 88 civilians, according to a tally.

According to the Israeli military, 645 soldiers have been killed during and since the October 7 raid, including 294 in its campaign against Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2024