Second soldier killed by Hezbollah drone in two days

A 19-year-old Israeli combat engineer was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike in southern Lebanon.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli soldier was killed by an explosive drone launched by the Hezbollah terror group on Sunday, just two days after another soldier was killed in a similar drone attack.

An IDF statement identified the slain soldier as Nehorai Leizer from the southern port city of Eilat. He was 19 years old.

A combat engineer in the 601st Brigade, Leizer was killed in southern Lebanon when a drone struck the armored vehicle he was driving. Another soldier was seriously wounded in the blast.

“My heart is torn. Why, God, why?” Rotem David-Leizer, the mother of the fallen soldier, was quoted as saying by Walla News.

Mai, the sister of the fallen soldier, told Hebrew-language media that her brother had recently been wounded and was not supposed to be serving in an operational role at the time of his death.

“He had a knee injury and was supposed to be resting on base,” she said. She recalled how the family urged him to prioritize his health, but said her brother firmly rejected the idea of remaining behind while his comrades were operating inside Lebanon.

“We told him, ‘Don’t be a hero, do the best thing for yourself,’” she said.

Leizer replied that he would never allow a situation in which his “friends were in Lebanon without him,” his sister said.

The decision to remain loyal to his unit “cost him dearly,” she added.

Leizer is the 11th IDF soldier killed since the announcement of a ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump in mid-April.

He is also the 23rd soldier killed since the resumption of hostilities between the IDF and Hezbollah, which escalated again following the launch of Operation Epic Fury in late February.

In a separate incident, an Arab-Israeli civilian contractor employed by Israel’s Defense Ministry was also killed by a Hezbollah drone while carrying out engineering work in southern Lebanon.