The IDF cleared for publication on Saturday night that Staff Sgt. Yoav Klein, Sgt. Maj. Nir Ben Ari, and Staff Sgt. Liav Kavavia were killed in southern Lebanon. In a separate incident in the same area, Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Shimon and another soldier were also killed. In the attack that killed Ben Ari, two other IDF soldiers were badly wounded and an officer was moderately wounded.
The Matar Carmel Regional Council said Ben Ari, from Kerem Maharal, was one of its residents and “one of the best of our sons.” It said he grew up in Kerem Maharal, studied at the Omer school and Kfar Galim high school, served as a fighter in the Maglan unit, and was due to be discharged in about a month. The council said he would have turned 22 in the coming days and that funeral details would be announced later.
The council and Ben Ari’s hometown described him as a strong, valued young man who was active, popular, and deeply attached to his family. His relatives said he was 21 when he fell, would have marked his 22nd birthday in nine days, had completed a prep year at the Jerusalem Mechina, and had been planning an important next chapter in his life, including an upcoming motorcycle test and a flight to Thailand in mid-August.
The incidents took place around 1:30 a.m. between Friday and Saturday in the Mount Ali Tahr area of southern Lebanon, where Maglan forces were operating under the Commando Brigade as part of Division 36’s offensive. According to the report, militants fired mortar shells and a suicide drone at an encampment, and later a suspected aerial munition hit a tank from Battalion 52 in the village of Tebnine. The tank caught fire, all four crew members were injured, and rescue teams later evacuated the wounded by Air Force helicopters to hospitals in Israel. In the tank incident, a combat medic declared the soldiers dead at the scene.
