One of the reservists killed was named already yesterday – Gilad Balahsan, 28, from Carmiel – but the name of his comrade has not yet been released.
Staff Sgt. Oren Lifschitz, 21, of Kibbutz Gazit was killed trying to rescue his fellow soldier, Staff Sergeant Moran Cohen, 21, of Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov. Both men died of their wounds on the way to Rambam Hospital.
The operation the two were participating in began at 6 AM Tuesday with members of their elite paratrooper unit going door to door searching for Hizbullah combatants.
Gunmen opened fire at the troops from inside a building, seriously wounding Cohen. Four Hizbullah gunmen were killed in the first exchange of gunfire and it was decided to treat Cohen at the scene rather than evacuate him.
At 4 PM it was decided to evacuate Cohen. The search and rescue members of the brigade carried him toward a tank which was to transport him to a waiting helicopter. Lifschitz was one of those carrying the stretcher and was wounded by enemy gunfire as he carried his wounded comrade.
Both men were eventually brought to the tank, which brought them to the helicopter, but they did not make it to the hospital alive.
Six more soldiers were wounded, one seriously and one moderately, when their unit, also in Bint Jbeil, was targeted by anti-tank missiles Tuesday evening.
Click here for an uplifting glimpse into the day to day life of an IDF reservist serving in Lebanon. The captions are in Russian, but the pictures are self-explanatory.