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'We ask God to reunite us with him in paradise' – Lebanese army hold funeral for general killed in Israeli airstrike on Nabatieh

"The Lebanese military held a funeral for Brigadier General Wissam Sabra who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit, Nabatieh on Saturday. Footage shows army personnel carrying the general's coffin into the Khashoggi Mosque in Beirut. It also captures the funeral procession, with military music played in his honour as relatives gathered around his coffin inside the mosque. "We woke up to the tragic news," said Khaled Sabra, one of the late general's sons. “We only found out about it when he was martyred.” He added that the last time he spent with his father was a happy one – they shared conversation, laughter, and a meal together. The Lebanese army command issued a statement yesterday, mourning several of its officers and soldiers. "The Army Command – Directorate of Orientation mourns the martyr Brigadier General Wissam Sabra, the martyr Captain Eli El Khoury, and the martyr soldier Hussein Abdel Ali Ghazal, who were martyred on June 6 as a result of a hostile Israeli strike," it read. The Israeli military said on Saturday that it "identified a vehicle moving suspiciously toward IDF soldiers near the area of Tebnit in Lebanon," claiming that "the vehicle was traveling through an active combat zone that had been evacuated. The IDF had received concrete indications that Hezbollah would direct fire toward IDF soldiers from the same area". "Following the identification of the vehicle, and in light of the concrete indication of Hezbollah fire in the area alongside the threat posed to the soldiers, the vehicle was struck," it added. The IDF also noted that the incident is now under review, although adding that it occurred in an ‘active combat zone’ where movement ‘requires coordination with the IDF’. On April 15, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and on April 23 he confirmed it had been extended by three weeks, following direct talks hosted by Washington between Lebanese and Israeli officials. In mid-May, the United States announced a further 45-day extension. "