A severe and unprecedented incident occurred on Wednesday when an Israeli civilian was killed by enemy fire in Lebanon. The civilian was identified as Ze’ev Chanoch Erlich HY’D, 71.

What was the 71-year-old civilian, a well-known historian and tour guide, doing in a battle zone? His friend, a deputy Golani commander, brought him to Lebanon in violation of regulations.

Details of the incident, which occurred around 3 p.m. on Wednesday reveal that Erlich donned a uniform – without being called up for reserves.

He was killed in an operational area of Division 36, in the second-line village area in southern Lebanon. This was the same area where a soldier from the 13th Battalion of Golani had fallen a few days earlier. The event unfolded when a group of soldiers, commanded by Col (.res.) Yoav Yarom, chief of staff of the Golani Brigade, entered an archaeological fortress in a village in southern Lebanon. The soldiers thought the area had already been cleared of terrorists but it turned out that two terrorists were hiding inside the fortress. The terrorists opened fire and a gun battle ensued in which the two terrorists were killed, and tragically, Erlich and another soldier were killed [his name has not yet been released] and an officer was seriously injured.

According to reports, Erlich entered the operational area of the IDF while in uniform and armed, with permission from the Golani Brigade’s Deputy Commander, but he was not on active reserve duty. After the incident, the IDF began investigating the circumstances of his entry into Lebanon, and it was revealed that it was carried out in violation of regulations and without the required approvals. The Commander of the Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Ori Gordin will investigate the circumstances of the incident.

The head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate recognized Erlich as a fallen IDF soldier and he will be buried with military honors due to the IDF’s responsibility for the tragic event. The IDF stated that disciplinary actions will be taken against those involved.

The Binyamin Regional Council stated: “Ze’ev Erlich, 71 years old, a reservist, joined the IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon. He was a distinguished researcher in the field of Eretz Yisrael and its settlement. Ze’ev, one of the early residents of Ofra in Binyamin, was married to Tamar and was a grandfather to grandchildren. Professional teams from the Ofra community and the Binyamin Council are supporting the family.”

Ze’ev Chanoch Erlich, H’yd, was born in 1953 to the researcher Yisrael Erlich, a Sukatchov chassid who edited many books on the history of Gedolei Yisrael from Poland.

He learned at Yeshivas HaKotel in Jerusalem and earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Touro College in Gemara and the history of Am Yisrael.

Erlich, who lived on the yishuv of Ofra in Binyamin, later became a tour guide, researcher of Eretz Yisrael, one of the founders of the Ofra Field School, and editor of the book series Shomron and Binyamin and Studies of Yehudah and Shomron.

In his younger years, he served as an infantry officer and an intelligence officer during the first intifada.

He has published dozens of research studies on the subject of knowledge of Eretz Yisrael (ידיעת הארץ) and wrote a regular column on matters related to Eretz Yisrael in Makor Rishon. He served as a guide on Yehudah and Shomron at the Lander Institute and a lecturer at the Moreshet Yaakov – Orot Yisrael College [a Dati Leumi teacher training institute]. He was also involved in documenting archaeological sites in Arab villages in Yehudah and Shomron.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)