The Israeli sergeant, Ayal Uriel Bianco, 30 years old, died in southern Lebanon, a region regularly hit by Israel, which says it is waging a war against the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah.
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday, April 14, the death of a soldier “in combat” in southern Lebanon, where Israel and the Iranian-backed Islamist Hezbollah have been clashing for over a month.
“Sergeant Ayal Uriel Bianco, 30 years old, a firefighter vehicle driver (…) fell in combat in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli armed forces said in a statement.
Since Lebanon was dragged into the regional conflict by Hezbollah on March 2, Israeli strikes have caused over 2,000 deaths and displaced over a million people, despite international calls for a ceasefire.
Hope for a truce
The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States are set to meet on Tuesday under the auspices of the U.S. administration, with Beirut hoping to negotiate an end to the war. Even before the meeting, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah leader, Naim Qassem, called for its “cancellation,” stating that such talks were a “surrender.”
The meeting at the State Department is scheduled for late morning, under the auspices of Marco Rubio, with Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors in Washington, Yechiel Leiter and Nada Hamadeh Moawad, as well as the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa.
