Yesterday morning, a Hezbollah operative opened fire on Israeli forces from inside a church in the southern Lebanese village of Qouza. In the ensuing exchange, Itamar Sapir, a 27-year-old deputy company commander, was killed.
Sapir is the 10th IDF soldier to fall in southern Lebanon since the start of this so-called ceasefire. He leaves behind a wife and a one-year-old son.
This tragic event is the direct result of a moral asymmetry: Israel’s respect for Christian holy sites and Hezbollah’s calculated exploitation of them.
The church in question had been personally visited by the IDF chief of staff and deliberately fenced off to ensure its protection during ground operations. For Hezbollah, Israel had just provided additional protection for an ideal sniper’s nest.