Sgt. Or Shahar, 20, killed in Lebanon

An IDF soldier, 20-year-old Sgt. Or Shahar from Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, was killed in the Lebanese town Nabi al-Awadi late Friday night. While his engineering corps unit was operating in the area at about 1 a.m., Lebanese operatives fired a mortar shell at his vehicle, wounding both him and another soldier.

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Shahar, who was seriously wounded, later died of his wounds. The other soldier was lightly wounded and did not require medical treatment in Israel. Nabi el-Awadi is located north of Metulla near the Lebanese village of Ataybe, where Sgt. Yonathan Sharabi was killed on Thursday in a battle with Hizbullah guerrillas. Shahar was meant to celebrate his 21st birthday on Sunday. Army Radio reported that his grandfather was killed while defending Kibbutz Yad Mordechai during the War of Independence in 1948. These days, Kibbutz Yad Mordechai is under the incessant threat of Kassam rockets fired by Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.