'When will you return home?' younger brother asks

Slain soldier’s girlfriend says at funeral that she saw his death in Lebanon in real time

Idan Fooks, 19, killed in Hezbollah drone attack on Sunday, laid to rest; girlfriend was on duty as a surveillance soldier; mother recalls his ‘heart filled with good intentions’

The girlfriend of Sgt. Idan Fooks, 19, watched the Hezbollah drone attack that killed him unfold in real time while she was on duty as a surveillance soldier, she said at his funeral on Monday.

Fooks was laid to rest in his hometown of Petah Tikva, one day after he was killed in southern Lebanon by a Hezbollah drone in an attack that wounded six additional soldiers. Hundreds attended the ceremony at the city’s Segula military cemetery.

At the funeral, Fook’s girlfriend, an IDF surveillance soldier identified in Hebrew media reports only by her first name, Yuval, spoke of how she had watched the attack remotely from her post.

“I’m sorry that I saw you in your last minutes,” she said, according to Hebrew media reports. “When I saw how close it all was to you, my heart thumped without knowing that it was you. Your suffering won’t leave me.”

His mother, Meital, described her son as “loved, and with a good heart,” always willing to help, and never complaining.

“No matter where you went, you conquered the hearts of those around you,” she sobbed. “Your heart was filled with good intentions.”

Fooks’s younger brother Rani, 9, asked, “When will you return home to play with me? You will always be with me in my heart,” according to a report from the Kan public broadcaster.

Earlier, Fooks’s uncle, Shlomi Arah, told the Ynet outlet how Yuval, as part of her surveillance operations, watched the deadly attack unfold.

Arah said that as Yuval saw the attack happen, she immediately feared Fooks was among those hit.

“She saw the wounded and asked if Idan was there. They told her ‘No,’ but she had a feeling he was,” he said, adding that, “in hindsight, it turns out she saw her boyfriend, whom she loved so much and who loved her, being killed in Lebanon.”

He added in comments to Hebrew media that she was later brought to Fooks’s family home, where “we’re embracing her too.”

Fooks’s grandfather, Kaduri Arah, lamented his grandson’s death during the ongoing ceasefire, adding: “If there’s a ceasefire, then it must be a ceasefire. If not — fight with full force,” he tells Kan.

An officer and three troops were seriously wounded, one soldier was moderately hurt, and another soldier was lightly hurt in the attack that killed Fooks.

He was the third soldier to be killed in southern Lebanon during the ceasefire, and the first in a direct Hezbollah attack. The other two troops were killed by bombs previously planted by the terror group, with the military assessing that they were not remotely detonated.

In the incident, a tank of the 77th Battalion got stuck in the southern Lebanon town of Taybeh, within the Israeli-declared security zone. While the troops were working to repair the tank, a Hezbollah explosive-laden drone struck next to them, killing Fooks and wounding the other soldiers.

An Israeli Air Force helicopter was then dispatched to take the wounded troops to a hospital. During efforts to evacuate the wounded troops, Hezbollah launched two more explosive-laden drones at the forces.

One of the drones was intercepted by the soldiers, while the second struck near the troops and the helicopter, without causing any additional injuries or damage, according to an IDF probe of the incident.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, saying it was a response to alleged Israeli violations of the truce.

A US-mediated ceasefire, which started on April 17, was extended for an additional three weeks, US President Donald Trump announced on April 24, during direct talks in Washington between Israel and Lebanon, despite continued cross-border violence.

Hezbollah began firing at Israel on March 2 in support of its sponsor, Iran, during the US-Israeli war on the Islamic Republic. Two Israeli civilians were killed in the attacks, and 16 IDF soldiers were killed fighting in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry says that more than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes during the same period, a figure that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The IDF has said that it has killed some 1,700 Hezbollah operatives since hostilities escalated.