BICOM

31-year-old Master Sgt. Shlomi Cohen was killed last night while patrolling Israel’s border with Lebanon, after a Lebanese sniper opened fire on his vehicle.

The incident took place near the Israeli northern border town of Rosh Hanikra at about 9pm yesterday evening. Cohen’s vehicle was travelling along a road adjacent to the electronic border fence when it was struck by six or seven bullets fired from a light firearm at short distance. IDF soldiers scrambled to the scene and were reported to have opened fire on suspicious figures on the other side of the border.

However, fears that the shooting was a diversion for a wider infiltration attempt were soon allayed. The IDF said the Lebanese sniper appeared to be shooting “of his own accord” and “initial enquiry confirmed that” he is “a member of the Lebanese Armed Forces.” In Lebanon, the National News Agency confirmed “a Lebanese army unit opened fire at an Israeli army unit this evening at the border.”

The IDF also confirmed that it had “protested this outrageous breach of Israel’s sovereignty” to the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in the area and warned that “We will not tolerate aggression against the state of Israel and maintain the right to exercise self-defence.”

A spokesman for the UN force said that they had been informed about “a serious incident” at the border and that “We are now trying to determine the facts of what happened and the situation is ongoing.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged calm on both sides of the border.

Israel’s border with Lebanon has been relatively calm since a month-long war in 2006 with Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon, after it had fired rockets deep into Israel. Last week though, Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border returned fire after shots were fired at them. Meanwhile, in August four Israeli soldiers were wounded in an explosion amid a cross-border operation.