The IDF Spokesperson issued a correction Wednesday evening, stating that after an investigation, it was determined that a female Oketz soldier's dog was killed by a Hezbollah operative in the Bint Jbeil clash, not the soldier herself. The soldier returned fire, and troops from the 679th Brigade then killed the assailant. The IDF apologized for the initial erroneous report, which stemmed from a communication error.
The IDF Spokesperson issued a correction Wednesday evening (19:04 Jerusalem) to the initial account of the clash in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, on Tuesday. The investigation found that a female soldier from the Oketz (canine) unit sent her dog to search a building where a Hezbollah operative was hiding. The operative shot and killed the dog. The soldier immediately returned fire, and troops from the 679th Brigade then engaged and killed the operative. The IDF apologized for the error in the initial report, which was attributed to a mistake in the operational communication.
The correction caps a day of conflicting reports over the same incident. The initial IDF statement at 07:30 Jerusalem claimed the female Oketz soldier had eliminated the operative. Within hours, soldiers from the 679th Brigade and the 8112 Battalion publicly contradicted that account, telling Kan News that the operative was killed by their forces after a standoff and that the dog had been killed. The Zioneer reported the soldiers' account at 11:22 Jerusalem. By the afternoon, the IDF had acknowledged an error and opened an investigation, which now confirms the soldiers' version.
The clash in Bint Jbeil is part of a series of ceasefire violations in southern Lebanon. As The Zioneer reported on Friday July 3, a reserve soldier from the 679th Brigade was severely wounded in a close-quarters encounter in the same building; that operative reportedly remained at large. The current incident, according to soldiers' accounts, involved a three-man Hezbollah cell that had been hiding in the ruins for weeks.
What remains open: The IDF correction does not address the capture of a second operative that the 679th Brigade reported. The fate of the captured operative, if any, is unconfirmed. The Hezbollah operative's affiliation and the full context of the cell's activities also remain under investigation.
7 developments
- DevelopingFighters in Bint Jbeil: IDF spokesperson lied — female soldier did not carry out kill
- StrongConfirmation: Hezbollah communications unit commander killed in Beirut strike
- DevelopingIDF: Hezbollah mortars hit UNIFIL post, kill UN soldier
- ConfirmedIDF confirms Radwan Force operative captured in Bint Jbeil, transferred for interrogation
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