Victim of Hezbollah munition explosion identified as 13-year-old Elazar Yair Wilensky

Teen killed in Hezbollah munition explosion on school trip identified as Elazar Yair Wilensky; army believes explosion was triggered after a student picked up the undetonated explosive.

By World Israel News Staff

Elazar Yair Wilensky, a ninth-grade student at ORT Ma’alot Yeshiva High School, was identified Tuesday as the teenager killed when an unexploded Hezbollah munition detonated during a school trip in the Upper Galilee on Monday, leaving 24 others injured.

Wilensky, the youngest of five children, was remembered by his family as “a boy who loved life, intelligent and wise, full of joy, a good and beloved friend who had his whole future ahead of him.”

He is survived by his parents, three sisters and a brother.

According to Tuesday morning hospital updates, 24 people injured in the explosion remained hospitalized across northern Israel, including four in serious condition, seven in moderate condition and 13 with minor injuries.

Rambam Medical Center in Haifa reported that a teacher injured in the blast underwent surgery overnight and remained in intensive care in serious but stable condition.

Three teenage patients were also being treated at the hospital, including one who suffered a shrapnel wound to his neck and was being monitored in pediatric intensive care. He was fully conscious and in stable condition.

The explosion occurred Monday afternoon near Mitzpe Pe’er on Ramim Ridge, close to the Lebanese border, during an annual outing attended by students and teachers from the Ma’alot school.

According to a preliminary IDF investigation, one of the students discovered an unexploded cluster submunition believed to have been fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization during the war. The student apparently picked up the device and placed it inside his backpack, where it subsequently detonated.

A student injured in the explosion, Eitan Masaori, told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a hospital visit Monday evening that another student had been handling the munition and unscrewed part of it shortly before the blast.

“Guys were thrown through the air; some fell into the bushes. There were two seconds of shock,” Masaori recalled.

Magen David Adom emergency personnel described arriving to find injured students scattered along the hiking trail, with some attempting to treat their classmates before rescue teams reached them.

MDA emergency medical technician David Radko said several students had already begun helping their wounded friends.

“Some even applied tourniquets to their friends to stop the bleeding,” he said.

The IDF deployed rescue helicopters, medical personnel and combat engineering forces to evacuate the wounded and search for additional unexploded munitions.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered an investigation into the incident, including the circumstances that allowed the explosive device to remain accessible along a hiking route.

The investigation is also examining the approval process for the school trip. Education Minister Yoav Kisch said preliminary findings indicated that the outing had received the necessary authorization and that the route had been inspected.

However, warning signs posted by the Jewish National Fund had prohibited entry to parts of the area because of wartime damage and ongoing restoration work. The school group reportedly entered through another access point where no warning sign was displayed.

Following the tragedy, Kisch ordered a 48-hour suspension of school trips in northern border areas and parts of the Golan Heights, with affected outings redirected to alternative routes.

Israeli security officials believe large quantities of unexploded ordnance remain scattered across northern Israel following years of Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks.

Meanwhile, the Ma’alot-Tarshiha Municipality expressed its condolences to Wilensky’s family and said municipal welfare workers and educational psychologists were assisting the victims’ families, students and school staff.