Two IDF Soldiers Killed Defending Israel's Northern Border Amidst Speech by Nasrallah

Two IDF Soldiers Killed Defending Israel's Northern Border Amidst Speech by Nasrallah

The IDF announced on Thursday afternoon that two of its soldiers were killed and several others wounded in a Hezbollah-launched anti-tank missile and drone barrage that was fired into northern Israel. The announcement came shortly after a much-anticipated speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which was full of fiery rhetoric and dark threats of revenge for the pager and walkie-talkie attacks on Hezbollah earlier this week.

The two fallen IDF soldiers were identified as Maj. (res.) Nael Fwarsy, 43, from Maghar, and Sgt. Tomer Keren, 20, from Haifa.

Fwarsy was killed, and another soldier was wounded, in a drone strike that hit just outside Ya’ara in the Western Galilee. Keren was killed when two anti-tank missiles hit his position in the Ramim Ridge area on the border in the Galilee Panhandle. Eight other soldiers were wounded in this attack, one seriously.

The casualties came amidst a fiery speech made by Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, speaking from an undisclosed location as per the usual procedure.

During his speech, which came in response to the attacks on pagers and walkie talkies earlier this week, Nasrallah dared the IDF to invade Lebanon, saying it would be "a historic opportunity" for Hezbollah to annihilate the IDF.

“The goal of the resistance is to prevent the enemy from realizing its goals," he continued." "Its latest objective is to return settlers to their homes in the north of occupied Palestine."

“Let me tell the Israeli government, the Israeli army and the Israeli people: You will not manage. I tell Prime Minister Netanyahu: You can do what you want, you will not manage. The only solution is to halt the aggression against the people of Gaza. No military escalation, no killings, no total war will return your settlers to the border area. You know it."

Regarding the crippling attack his forces suffered this week, he declared “There will be a just punishment. I will not say when, where or how. You will know when the time comes.”

Elsewhere, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami told Nasrallah in public comments on Thursday that “Such terrorist acts are undoubtedly the result of the Zionist regime’s (Israel) despair and successive failures. This will soon be met with a crushing response from the axis of resistance and we will witness the destruction of this bloodthirsty and criminal regime.”