IDF Staff-Sgt. (res.) Matanya Elster was killed in an anti-tank missile attack conducted by the Hezbollah terrorist organization on Wednesday, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said on Thursday.
Elster, 22, was from Sde Ilan in northern Israel and served in the 221st Battalion, Carmeli Brigade.
After the attack on Wednesday, the IDF launched retaliatory strikes on a Hezbollah observation post in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah took responsibility for the anti-tank missile fire shortly after the incident.
The attack took place near the Israeli town of Arab al-Aramshe, opposite the Lebanese village of Dhayra. The IDF did not immediately provide details on casualties.
Number of false alarms along northern border in recent days
On Thursday morning, rocket sirens which sounded in Kiryat Shmona were found to have been a false alarm, the latest in a series of such incidents in northern Israel as the IDF remains on high alert.
Earlier in the day, sirens sounded in Metula in northern Israel, although it remained unclear what the background of that incident was.
The Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed that Hezbollah had launched a drone toward Israel, with the IDF responding with interceptors which succeeded in downing the drone over Israeli territory. The IDF had not confirmed or denied the report as of Thursday evening.
Earlier, an explosion was heard near Kiryat Shmona after rocket sirens sounded in the area, according to Israeli reports.
The IDF said air defense soldiers fired an interceptor after identifying an object in Israeli airspace. The IDF was checking if the interception was due to a false alarm or not.
The incidents on Thursday came a day after the IDF announced that no security incident had taken place after the entire north of Israel was ordered to shelter in place after a large-scale drone alert was issued in all areas north of Haifa. It is as of yet unclear what triggered the alert.
Amid the alert, a mortar hit an empty home in Metula.
Rocket alerts were issued in Haifa on Wednesday as well, with Gaza's al-Qassam Brigades saying it fired one rocket toward Haifa.