Israeli commando killed in building collapse in Lebanon

Three soldiers have been killed in the last two days while fighting Hezbollah.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A soldier in a reserve unit of the IDF’s elite Maglan commandos was killed Wednesday when a building collapsed on him in a village in southern Lebanon.

Sgt. First Class Eitan Ben Ami, 22, was walking with his comrades through the structure during an active operation, using its cover to protect themselves.

Along with others in the area, the building had been damaged by earlier Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire in advance of the military maneuvers.

The initial IDF investigation showed that its sudden collapse was due to the weather conditions, rather than any hidden bombs that might have been detonated by Hezbollah forces, or active fire directed at the building.

There had just been a heavy rainfall on the previous night.

Four soldiers were injured in the incident and were taken to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya for treatment as the unit worked for hours to extract Ben Ami’s body from the ruins.

The army said it was studying the incident in order to draw operational conclusions for the future.

Ben Ami was a native of Jerusalem. Another resident of the capital, Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, 30, was killed the previous day in southern Lebanon.

A fighter in the 5111th Reconnaissance Battalion of the Golani Brigade, he was killed by a Hezbollah drone strike while his group was securing an area about two kilometers from the Israeli border.

Three soldiers were seriously injured when the explosive drone hit, and they were all airlifted to hospital.

Gaeldor, 30, was a cancer survivor and was thus not called up to serve but went anyway, his brother Nitzan said.

“He recovered from cancer two years ago and didn’t have to enlist,” he told Kan’s Reshet Bet. “The mutual decision made by him and his wife, Adi, for him to volunteer and go to the reserves was some kind of comfort, because he believed in what he was doing. He didn’t hesitate and enlisted himself on October 7th.”

Gaeldor had spent “more than 250 days” on duty, Nitzan added, even though “he didn’t enjoy being in the army. We’re not a military family and neither was he. But the necessity to change reality for the good of all called him.”

Gaeldor is survived by his parents, wife, and two young children, eight-month-old Alouma and 3-year-old Neta.

Thursday morning, the army announced the name of the Golani soldier who had been killed in battle Wednesday in Lebanon alongside a civilian, Ze’ev ‘Jabo’ Hanoch Erlich, a 71-year-old tour guide known for his deep knowledge of Israeli history and archeology.

Sgt. Gur Kehati (20) from Nir Banim was killed and two officers wounded, including the Golani Brigade’s chief of staff, Col. Yoav Yarom, when two Hezbollah fighters opened fire at the group from close range.

Ehrlich, who held the rank of major in the IDF reserves, had been brought to the combat unit by an officer who had not asked for permission to do so from his commanders.

Kehati is the 803rd soldier to fall since the Hamas invasion 13 months ago set off the ongoing war, and the 46th since Israel invaded southern Lebanon in October to stop Hezbollah’s constant rocket and UAV attacks on the Jewish state in support of Hamas.