Late Friday night, a suspected Hezbollah‑operated drone or suicide UAV struck a Merkava tank carrying the command staff of the IDF’s 52nd Battalion in the strategic high ground of al‑Taher near the town of Tubna, during a ground maneuver by the 36th Division on the outskirts of Nablus. The explosion killed Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Dor Ben Shimon and three other crew members, whose names have not yet been released.
In a separate incident around 0400 hours in the Shaqif area near Tubna, a suicide drone hit a unit of the Commando Brigade, wounding five soldiers, one of them seriously.