IDF soldier killed in Hezbollah rocket attack

Victim killed in terrorist rocket attack on northern Israel identified as 20-year-old IDF staff sergeant.

By World Israel News Staff

The victim killed Wednesday in a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel has been identified as 20-year-old IDF Staff-Sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo, a resident of the town of Ge’a.

Benjo was serving with the army’s 869th Combat Intelligence Collection unit, a part of the 91st Division.

She was posthumously promoted to the rank of Staff-Sergeant after the attack.

Eight others were injured in the rocket barrage, which struck in and around the northern Israeli city of Tzfat (Safed). One building just outside of Tzfat was struck by one of the rockets, killing Benjo and injuring eight others.

“There were strikes near the city, also in our area, there are injured. We are returning the educational institutions to normal. … I don’t think we need to talk about evacuation, we are on full alert,” Safed Mayor Shuki Ohana said.

Among the injured is a reservist from the IDF’s Computer Service Directorate, who is listed in serious condition. The seven other victims are in moderate and light condition.

Wednesday’s attack comes on the heels of a similar rocket attack on Elifelet, a moshav in northern Israel, that left two seriously injured.

The victims include 15-year-old Idan Saada and his mother 47-year-old Heli Saada.

Following Wednesday’s rocket attack, Minister Without Portfolio Benny Gantz (National Unity) addressed a gathering at Yeshivat Hedvata in Gan Yavneh, pledging that Israel would respond to the attack.

Israel, Gantz said, “is in combat in the north all the time, and this morning we experienced a difficult event for which the response will come soon, and it will be powerful.”