HY’D: Four IDF Soldiers Killed In Operational Accident in South Lebanon

Four Israeli reserve soldiers were killed in a suspected “operational accident” in southern Lebanon yesterday afternoon, the military announces.

The slain troops are named as:

Maj. (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, 43, from Zichron Yaakov.

Cpt. (res.) Sagi Ya’akov Rubinshtein, 31, from Lavi.

Master Sgt. (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose, 28, from Beit Shemesh.

Sgt. First Class. (res.) Erez Ben Efraim, 25, from Ramat Gan.

They all served with the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 9263rd Battalion. Zinershain was a company commander and Rubinshtein was a platoon commander.

According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were scanning a tunnel in the Labbouneh area of southern Lebanon when a cache of Hezbollah weapons and explosives stored there detonated.

The cause of the blast is under further investigation, though the military suspects that it was not a Hezbollah booby trap, but rather due to explosives previously placed by Israeli forces there.