Father recalls final message from soldier killed in Lebanon tank incident

Chabushash was born and raised in Gva Binyamin-Adam, studied after high school at the Beit Yatir pre-army academy, enlisted in the Armored Corps and served as a tank commander in Battalion 52 of the 401st Brigade. He had recently completed a tank commanders’ course and planned to attend officers’ training. He is the third resident of Gva Binyamin-Adam killed since the war began, and the 64th fallen soldier from the Binyamin Regional Council.

His father said Nove spent the past months fighting in Lebanon and was proud to serve as a combat soldier and commander in the Armored Corps. Haim said that after Nove’s previous battalion commander was seriously wounded in April, his son regretted missing the event and visited him as soon as he could. “Now the battalion commander who was with him was killed, together with the whole tank crew,” he said.

The last time his parents saw him was about two weeks ago, when he told them, “Dad, I went to repair the tank,” and returned to the fighting the same day. On his last leave, he said he was going to spend Shabbat with his grandparents, and that was their farewell. At 11:10 p.m. Thursday, hours before the incident, he texted his father: “Dad, there is a chance I’ll come home on Sunday, but don’t tell Mom so she won’t build up expectations and be sad if something happens.” Haim replied with a like, and by midnight the disaster had occurred.

Haim described his son as gentle and helpful, saying he never argued, always gave in, and returned from the army and immediately took on chores at home. In a Galatz interview, he said the family only received final confirmation of Nove’s identification early Friday morning, after already knowing over the weekend that he had been hit. He added that the tank had been in a hard-to-reach area and that the army had yet to complete its investigation.

The IDF said Thursday that the circumstances of the incident, which killed the commander and three fighters, were still under investigation. The crew had been taking part in an operation to seize a fortified Hezbollah compound near the Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, one of the group’s key strongholds. A senior military source said dozens of militants were trapped there. The incident took place near the village of Tebnine, by the city of Nabatieh, around 00:20, when a suspicious target hit a tank from Battalion 52 operating under the Givati Brigade combat team. The army has not yet determined what struck the tank, but ruled out an accident or malfunction and said it was likely hit externally by either a suicide drone or an anti-tank missile.