An Israeli soldier was killed in what was described as an “operational accident” in the southern Lebanon security zone Saturday night.
No details of the incident were given. But Cpl. Chaim Bin-Nun, 19, of Jerusalem was unofficially reported to have been killed by the accidental discharge of a firearm while on patrol in the security zone.
The spokesman for the Israel Defense Force said an investigation had begun into the accident’s cause.
This was the latest death in a series of fatal accidents and serious casualties that have occurred in the Israeli army in recent months.
Most of these accidents have taken place during training exercises and have been largely due to relaxed discipline, which is causing concern both inside and outside the army.
Bin-Nun’s death came toward the end of a violent weekend in the area. It was marked by fierce and sustained exchanges of artillery and mortar and rocket fire between forces of the IDF and its allied South Lebanon Army inside the zone, and guerrilla forces north of the zone.
The artillery, tank and mortar bombardments were reported to have been the heaviest since the IDF’s responses last month to the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah’s Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israeli towns and villages.
Friday’s heavy barrage from IDF and SLA gunners was a response to an attack by terrorist gunners using rocket-propelled grenades and mortars against SLA positions in the region of Beit Yahoun village, along the zone’s northern border.
An SLA soldier was lightly wounded in the exchange.
Hezbollah, in a statement issued in Beirut, claimed responsibility for the shooting, which was the latest in a wave of similar attacks and roadside bombings by the extremist Iranian-backed Shi’ite organization and its Shi’ite rival, Amal.
The fighting escalated later in the evening, after gunners fired dozens of mortar rounds and several Katyusha rockets toward IDF and SLA targets along the length of the northern border of the zone, especially on the eastern sector.
IDF and SLA gunners responded with a heavy bombardment of artillery, tank and mortar fire especially, in the Iqlim al-Toufah region, where Hezbollah has a number of bases.
According to sources of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, the IDF and SLA gunners fired more than 350 rounds on Friday alone.
IDF troops on operational patrols in the eastern sector of the zone on Saturday discovered four explosive devices, destroying them without any casualties or damage.
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