IDF officer killed in Lebanon, bringing military death toll to 794

His father, Col. (res.) Ilan Dickshtein, previously commanded the IDF’s Etzioni Brigade and the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion.

By JNS

Israel Defense Forces Lt. Ivri Dickshtein, 21, was killed in action battling Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon, the IDF said on Thursday night.

Dickshtein, a resident of Elazar in the Gush Etzion region of Judea, was a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.

A combat officer from the brigade was seriously wounded in the same incident.

The Binyamin Regional Council, which administers large parts of southern and central Samaria, said that Dickshtein, who grew up in the community of Eli, is survived by his wife, parents and five siblings.

His father, Col. (res.) Ilan Dickshtein, previously commanded the IDF’s Etzioni Brigade and the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion.

According to Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster, the family lives on the same street as the parents of Capt. Shilo Rauchberger, who was killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as those of Capt. Roy Beit Ya’akov, who died in a “friendly fire” incident in May.

“We lost Ivri, a combat officer—the best of Binyamin’s sons—who grew up and was educated here, fought like a hero and fell in defense of the people and their land,” council head Israel Ganz said in the statement.

“The community of Eli, along with the other towns in Binyamin, is at the forefront of the war and is paying a painful price for the revival of the Jewish people in their land,” Ganz said.

On Wednesday, six IDF soldiers were killed in a firefight with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, while a seventh was moderately wounded. All of them served in the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion.

The Golani soldiers were ambushed at short range by Hezbollah terrorists after entering a structure where the army had not yet operated.

An hours-long firefight ensued, which ended with at least one terrorist dead and the area falling under IDF control.

The death toll among Israeli troops since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border terrorist massacre now stands at 794, according to IDF figures.

Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded there in May.