Female IDF recruit, 19, speaks out after stopping infiltration on Lebanon border

A soldier who helped prevent Hezbollah infiltrators from crossing into Israel posted on social media about the incident.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A female Israeli Defense Forces soldier, 19, who helped prevent Hezbollah infiltrators from crossing into Israel has spoken out about her role in the event, which took place on Monday.

For security reasons, the soldier is being identified by her first initial, S.

On Monday evening, S, who serves as a border lookout, spotted a suspicious group of men in the Har Dov area close to the Israel-Lebanon Blue Line.

She immediately raised the alarm about the potential Hezbollah terror cell attempting to cross into Israel. IDF forces opened fire on the group, forcing them to retreat.

Army Spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Cornicus said in a statement that the “Infiltration was successfully thwarted. The terrorists retreated back to Lebanon. We have no information if any of the perpetrators were wounded or killed.”

According to Israel’s Channel 13 News, S posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday about the incident, writing, “Who would have believed that I would thwart an incident like that?”

“The sense of pride and satisfaction is simply crazy. Protecting you from a distance — even if you don’t know it.”

Speaking to Channel 13 News, S’s mother said she was proud of her daughter and at first couldn’t believe S had such a critical role in stopping the infiltration.

When S messaged her mother that she’d been the lookout responsible for spotting the terrorist, “I thought she was playing a joke on us,” her mother said. “I asked her if she was telling the truth and she said ‘yes, it was me.’”

Haim Zuri, the mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, where S lives, heaped praise on the young soldier during a phone call on Tuesday.

“You’ve become the darling of the city,” he told her.

Hezbollah denied that the incident was a foiled infiltration attempt, and has said that retaliation for an Israeli attack in Syria last week that killed a Hezbollah terrorist is still forthcoming.

A spokesperson for Hezbollah said Israel’s version of events was “an attempt to invent false and fantastical victories.”