The IDF said Saturday night that Staff Sgt. Nir Ben Ari, 21, from Kerem Maharal and a commando soldier in the Magen unit of the Commando Brigade, was killed overnight in southern Lebanon by Hezbollah rocket fire and explosive drones. In the same incident, two soldiers were seriously wounded, one officer was moderately wounded, and 10 more troops were lightly injured.
The military also cleared for publication the name of Staff Sgt. Yoav Klein, 21, from Herzliya, a tank soldier in Armored Battalion 52, who was killed in the battalion commander’s tank disaster in the night between Thursday and Friday. He died alongside the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Dor Ben Shimhon, and two other soldiers whose names have not yet been released.
Ben Ari, who served as a sergeant major in Magen, had been due to leave the army at the end of the month and would have turned 22 in nine days. His family said he “loved life, family and friends,” describing him as always cheerful, always surrounded by friends, and “the first in everything.” They said he had an upcoming motorcycle test and a plane ticket to Thailand for mid-August.
Nir Baruch, a family friend, said Ben Ari had been home only the day before but chose to return to his friends and enter Lebanon. Assif Isaac, head of the Hof Hacarmel Regional Council, called him “salt of the earth” and said his life was cut short just as a new chapter was beginning. Alpha Weinberger, principal of Kfar Galim High School, said Ben Ari graduated in 2022, studied biology and physics, and that his family is part of the school community.
The school said the loss was the second in recent weeks, after Staff Sgt. Noam Hamburger, also a Kfar Galim alumnus, was killed in southern Lebanon last month by an explosive drone. Separately, the military said reservist Sgt. Maj. Alexander Filin, 29, from Haifa, was killed three days ago in southern Lebanon when an explosive device was detonated near the headquarters of the deputy commander of Division 36. Seven other soldiers were wounded in that incident, including three moderately and four lightly, among them the deputy division commander, a colonel.
