Soldiers from the 679th Brigade, operating under the 91st Division in the security zone in southern Lebanon, are challenging the IDF's account of an operation in Bint Jbeil, disputing the claim that a dog handler from the Oketz working dog unit killed a Hezbollah terrorist during the incident.
In an official statement released by the IDF, the military said that troops were conducting searches inside a building where, a week earlier, a reserve soldier had been seriously wounded in an encounter. According to the statement, a military working dog named Mars was sent into the building to search for threats.
The IDF said the Hezbollah terrorist opened fire, killing Mars, before being shot and killed by the Oketz handler accompanying the force.
However, shortly after the statement was published, Arutz Sheva - Israel National News reported, citing soldiers involved in the operation, that troops from the 679th Brigade, not the Oketz handler, were responsible for killing the terrorist. Additional soldiers who were present during the incident have since echoed that account, contradicting the official version.
According to the soldiers, the Oketz handler deployed Mars to search the building before other forces entered. After the terrorist shot and killed the dog, the handler returned fire, but the soldiers say those shots did not kill the terrorist.
They claim that troops from the 8112nd Battalion subsequently took control of the scene, surrounded the terrorist, and repeatedly called on him to surrender. According to their account, the terrorist was ultimately shot and killed by a battalion soldier only after he moved toward a nearby weapon.
Responding to the conflicting accounts, the IDF said it is reviewing all aspects of the incident, including the circumstances surrounding the terrorist's death.
"Following the announcement distributed earlier, the IDF is examining all details of the incident, including the manner in which the terrorist was eliminated," the military said in a statement. "The matter will be investigated and lessons will be learned. After the debriefing, the IDF will present the findings transparently. If an error was made, it was a well-intentioned human error."