Hezbollah Drone Attacks Kill Israeli Soldier Liem Ben Hamo in Southern Lebanon

Hezbollah drone attacks in southern Lebanon killed Israeli soldiers and wounded others during clashes and strikes that multiple outlets described as intensifying despite a ceasefire extension.

PressTV said at least two Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 27 others wounded in multiple Hezbollah drone attacks across southern Lebanon, adding that Israeli sources confirmed one soldier was killed when Hezbollah attacked a military group using an explosive drone in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

Al Jazeera

PressTV also reported a separate incident in which an Israeli soldier was killed and 15 others wounded in Hezbollah drone attacks on Thursday, and it said the attacks marked the third Israeli soldier killed by Hezbollah drones in southern Lebanon over the past several days.

Haaretz reported that an Israeli soldier was killed in southern Lebanon on Thursday, identifying him as 19-year-old Liem Ben Hamo of the Golani Brigade, from Herzliya, and it said he died in an explosive drone strike that also moderately wounded another soldier.

The Times of Israel similarly said a soldier was killed and three were moderately wounded in two Hezbollah explosive drone attacks in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning, and it described another drone striking an artillery position on the border and wounding twelve other troops.

Al-Jazeera Net said the Israeli army announced that Corporal Leiam Ben Hamo, 19, from Herzliya, was killed after being wounded by a Hezbollah drone-suicide attack in southern Lebanon, and it also said another soldier was seriously injured in the incident.

Across the reporting, the same name—Liem Ben Hamo—appears as the slain Israeli soldier, while the wounded counts vary by outlet and by incident description.

The drone attacks and strikes were reported alongside a ceasefire extension and a broader pattern of continued fighting described by multiple outlets.

PressTV said US President Donald Trump announced last Thursday a three-week extension of the ceasefire that began on April 17, while also asserting that “field evidence indicates that the agreement continues to be repeatedly violated by Israeli forces.”

Al-Jazeera Net

It added that Israeli media reported Israel had formally informed the US government that its deterrence capability against Hezbollah is nearing collapse, and it said Channel 12 reported Netanyahu discussed the matter with President Trump during a phone call.

PressTV quoted Netanyahu’s reported emphasis that relying on responses without taking initiative allows Hezbollah time to recover and strengthen its ideological position, while putting Israeli field forces at increasing risk.

The Guardian described the ceasefire as “fraying,” saying it failed to stop fighting between the two sides, and it said Hezbollah launched several drones at Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon on Tuesday while Israel issued new displacement orders for south Lebanon and carried out airstrikes.

The Guardian also stated that Hezbollah’s use of small, fibre-optic-guided drones has managed to evade Israeli aerial defences and that the drones have a range of up to 9 miles (15km), while saying Hezbollah has used them to attack Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon almost daily since the ceasefire was established on 17 April.

France 24 reported that the Israeli army said on Sunday that one soldier was killed during clashes in southern Lebanon, adding that nine other soldiers were wounded and that one of them sustained serious injuries.

The reporting includes direct claims by Hezbollah and statements by Israeli officials, with outlets describing how each side framed the drone attacks and the broader confrontation.

The Times of Israel said Hezbollah took responsibility, claiming in a statement to have targeted two Israeli tanks in Qantara with drones, and it also said Hezbollah took responsibility again, claiming to have targeted two tanks in Bint Jbeil with explosive drones.

It further quoted army spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee as saying, “Hezbollah activities are forcing the IDF to act against it, as it does not intend to harm you,” while also reporting that the IDF issued evacuation warnings for 23 villages in southern Lebanon ahead of strikes.

The Times of Israel also reported that Lebanese President Joseph Aoun decried what he described as Israel’s continued violations of the ceasefire, calling for international pressure on Israel to stop strikes he said were hitting civilians and paramedics, and it said Aoun slammed the “continuing Israeli violations” in south Lebanon.

The Guardian quoted Hezbollah’s leader Naim Qassem saying direct talks were a “grave sin” and that they would plunge the country into “instability,” adding that Qassem said, “These direct negotiations and their outcomes are as if they do not exist for us, and they do not concern us in the slightest,” and that the group will not give up its arms.

The National’s account included a Hezbollah official’s framing of drone tactics, quoting, “From a military and strategic standpoint, you can consider the first-person drones as the new martyrdom squads,” and it also included retired Lebanese Army general Mounir Shehadeh saying the change was “an evolution within a combat system, not a complete transformation”.

PressTV added a different set of Israeli media claims, saying Hebrew-language media reported that Israel notified Washington that the current policy of “restraint” in Lebanon is undermining Israeli deterrence and benefiting Hezbollah.

While the outlets converge on the core fact that Hezbollah used explosive and drone attacks in southern Lebanon and that Israeli forces responded with strikes and interceptions, they diverge in how they count casualties and how they describe the scale of the fighting.

PressTV said at least two Israeli soldiers were killed and more than 27 others wounded in multiple Hezbollah drone attacks across southern Lebanon, and it also reported that Israeli sources acknowledged a soldier was killed and 15 others wounded in Hezbollah drone attacks on Thursday.

Haaretz

Haaretz reported a single soldier killed and said the explosive drone strike moderately wounded another soldier, identifying him as 19-year-old Liem Ben Hamo of the Golani Brigade from Herzliya.

The Times of Israel described two Hezbollah explosive drone attacks in southern Lebanon on Thursday morning, saying a soldier was killed and three were moderately wounded, and it added that another drone struck an artillery position on the border and wounded twelve other troops.

Al-Jazeera Net said the Israeli army announced Corporal Leiam Ben Hamo, 19, was killed and that another soldier was seriously injured, and it also stated that 12 of its soldiers were wounded by the explosion of a Hezbollah drone near an armored vehicle near the Shomera area earlier on Thursday.

France 24 reported that the Israeli army said on Sunday that one soldier was killed during clashes and that nine other soldiers were wounded, with one sustaining serious injuries.

The Guardian emphasized fibre-optic-guided drones that “has managed to evade Israeli aerial defences” and described a range of up to 9 miles (15km), while The National emphasized a shift to “near-daily precision drone strikes” and described the strategy as “continuous attrition.”

The consequences described by the outlets extend beyond the immediate drone strikes to displacement orders, injury and death tallies among civilians, and political demands for accountability and international pressure.

The Times of Israel reported that Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on south Lebanon killed nine people, including two children, and it quoted the ministry’s statement about nine martyrs and 23 wounded.

Ici Beyrouth

It also said the IDF later launched a wave of airstrikes against Hezbollah infrastructure sites across southern Lebanon and issued evacuation warnings for 23 villages, calling on residents to evacuate to at least a kilometer away.

Al-Jazeera Net added additional civilian casualty reporting, saying the Health Ministry also said 15 people were killed and 25 others injured in Israeli raids on the towns of Jebsheet, Toul, and Harouf in southern Lebanon.

It also reported that the Lebanese News Agency said two people were killed and a third wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Qana in southern Lebanon, and that Israeli warplanes continued their assaults since dawn on villages in the Bent Jbeil district.

The Guardian broadened the stakes by citing a wider toll since the beginning of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel on 2 March, stating that at least 2,534 people have been killed and 7,863 wounded by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.

PressTV said Israel warned Washington that its deterrence capability against Hezbollah is nearing collapse and that Netanyahu requested Trump to shorten the diplomatic timeline with Lebanon to a period not exceeding mid-May—approximately two to three weeks.