ALBAWABA - The Israeli army said in a statement early Friday that one Israeli soldier had been killed and three others wounded during an operation in the occupied Golan Heights.
The deceased soldier was named by the military as 19-year-old Sergeant Niv Diag of the 890th Paratroopers Battalion. According to the statement, which Al Jazeera published, the deadly event happened during what was called a "traffic accident" when forces were in the region conducting an operation.
The army further reported that two soldiers from Diag's unit and another from the headquarters of the 474th Golan Formation were mildly injured in addition to the death. They were all taken to a hospital for medical care. Although no information on the operation they were on has been made public, the military also said that a group of specialists has been tasked with looking into the occurrence.
Israel has controlled the majority of the Golan Heights since the 1967 conflict, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli soldiers increased their control over portions of the demilitarized zone and proclaimed the 1974 disengagement deal with Syria to be essentially null and illegal after the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Israeli troops have been conducting almost daily airstrikes on Syrian territory in recent months, targeting military installations, automobiles, and weapons storage facilities, according to Al Jazeera. The war-torn nation has become even more unstable as a result of these attacks, which have killed people.
Regional tensions are heightened by Israel's dominance of the strategically important Mount Hermon, which is just 35 kilometers from Damascus, the capital of Syria.
