An IDF reservist was killed and three other soldiers were wounded on Friday after an explosive device detonated by them in southern Lebanon, hours after the ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect, the military announced Saturday.
The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer (res.) Barak Kalfon, 48, of the 226th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade’s 7056th Battalion, from Adi in northern Israel. He worked as an engineer at Rafael, the state-owned defense firm, and is survived by his wife and two daughters.
His death occurred on Friday after a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect at midnight. The reservists were scanning a building in the southern Lebanon village of Jebbayn for weapons.
During the scans, a Hezbollah explosive device detonated, killing Kalfon and wounding three other troops, two moderately and one lightly.
According to an initial IDF probe, the bomb was not remotely detonated and was likely automatically triggered.
Kalfon was severely injured in the explosion and evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. He underwent emergency surgery and other life-saving measures, but his death was confirmed hours after arrival.
“Next week you would have celebrated number 49,” said Kalfon’s cousin, Sapir Kalfon, according to Ynet. “What did you achieve? A great deal. Lots. And you didn’t even need to be in uniform anymore. But even so, you insisted on volunteering for reserve duty. That’s who you were. Always with a bright face, always smiling, always embracing and including. Calm, with a heart bursting with goodness.”
Further details of the incident were under investigation by the military. The wounded troops were airlifted to a hospital in northern Israel, and their families were notified, the IDF said.
Kalfon is the first Israeli soldier to be killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire halted more than six weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group backed by Iran.
“Barak was a courageous and dedicated fighter and exemplary family man,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. “In his civilian work as an engineer at Rafael, he contributed significantly to the security of the State of Israel, and combined a first-rate professional sense of duty with significant reserve service and many years of defending Israel.”
He added, “I offer condolences from the depths of my heart to his family at this difficult hour and wish to embrace them.”
Rafael eulogized him in a statement as a “dedicated and professional employee who dealt with fields significant to the security of Israel, which he loved so.”
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on March 2, days after the beginning of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic. Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and by expanding its troops’ presence deeper into Lebanon.
In addition to Kalfon, 13 IDF soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon amid the fighting. Two civilians were also killed by Hezbollah rockets, and an Israeli civilian was mistakenly killed in the north by Israeli artillery shelling.
Kalfon will be laid to rest on Sunday afternoon at the Adi cemetery, according to media reports.
