One Israeli soldier was killed and two others lightly wounded Saturday when terrorists from the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement unsuccessfully attempted to overrun an Israeli position in the southern Lebanon security zone.
Staff Sgt. Almog Klein, from Moshav Shafir in the northern Negev, was killed when a mortar shell fell next to the position where he was standing guard.
He was laid to rest Sunday afternoon.
Klein was a month short of his 21st birthday and completion of his military service.
The wounded soldiers were treated in the field, in the eastern sector of the zone, and later evacuated by helicopter to a government hospital in Safed.
Israeli military sources described Saturday’s attack as one of the fiercest launched at positions of the Israel Defense Force and its allied South Lebanon Army.
The fighting in southern Lebanon, which began a day after President Clinton completed a visit to the region, continued through Sunday.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
