An Israeli soldier was killed in the northern West Bank in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after being struck in the head by a large rock during an arrest raid, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The soldier, Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Ygal, was a member of the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion, which was carrying out a series of four arrests overnight in the West Bank village of Yabed, west of Jenin.
As the troops were making their way out of the village on foot following the arrests, a small group of around 10 Palestinian youths began throwing rocks at them.
Zilberman said the rock that killed Ben-Ygal appeared to have been thrown from the roof of one of the homes on the outskirts of the village, which has often seen clashes between residents and IDF troops.
Zilberman said: “The rock hit the soldier directly in the head. The soldier was wearing a helmet. But it hit him at an angle”.
Ben-Ygal, from the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan, was the first IDF soldier to be killed in action in 2020. He was posthumously promoted from staff sergeant to sergeant first class.
IDF troops have detained over 10 residents from the building where the block was thrown.
Ben-Ygal’s death came two years after IDF soldier Ronen Lubarsky was killed when was struck on the head by a marble slab that was thrown at him from the third floor of a building in the al-Amari Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah.
