IDF Soldier Shlomi Cohen Killed at Lebanon Border

Master Sergeant Shlomi Cohen of the Israel Defense Forces was killed on Sunday evening, at approximately 8:30, when shot while driving a military vehicle approximately 50 meters from the Lebanese border.

Cohen, 31, who lived in the northern city of Afula with his wife and 11-month-old daughter, was a permanent professional corps in the IDF Navy.

Paramedics took him to a nearby hospital in Nahariya, but doctors were unable to save him. He had been shot multiple times.

“We confirmed that the sniper is a member of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and we have launched an investigation into the shooting,” the IDF affirmed. “This was an outrageous violation of Israel’s sovereignty, and we have protested the incident with UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon]. We will not tolerate any aggression against Israel and will do everything necessary to protect our civilians.”

“The IDF has protested this outrageous breach of Israel’s sovereignty with UNIFIL and has heightened its state of preparedness along the border,” declared IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner. “We will not tolerate aggression against the State of Israel, and [we] maintain the right to exercise self-defense against perpetrators of attacks against Israel and its civilians.”

A meeting between the IDF, the Lebanese Armed Forces and the UN was scheduled for Monday morning to begin an investigation of the incident.

“We will demand that the Lebanese army first of all provides an explanation of exactly what happened there, and whether this is really a rogue soldier, what they did with him, and what the Lebanese army plans to do to prevent incidents of this type,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stated, as reported in The Jerusalem Post. “We will not tolerate a violation of our sovereignty along any border, certainly not the Lebanon border.”

Also, according to the Post, the official Lebanon National News Agency claimed that “the Lebanese soldier who fired shots across the Israeli border returned to his post on Monday after having gone missing Sunday night after the shooting,” and that “Israel was carrying out ‘intensive’ flights at low altitude over Lebanese air space.”

“After the shooting,”, the Post continued, “IDF soldiers spotted suspicious figures on the Lebanese side of the border and opened fire at them. An IDF source said it was not immediately clear if there were casualties on the Lebanese side of the border as a result.”

Cohen’s father described his son as “the flower of the family,” Israel National News reported. He was “an amazing child, an amazing father, an amazing husband. I have no words. It has fallen on us and we are in great pain.”

Cohen’s funeral took place Monday afternoon at the military cemetery in Haifa.

Author: United with Israel Staff
Date: Dec. 16, 2013