American‑Born Israeli Paratrooper Killed in Combat in Southern Lebanon

Israeli officials say Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Hacohen Katz, a 22‑year‑old paratrooper born in New Haven, Connecticut, was killed in combat in southern Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Hezbollah on a second front alongside its joint campaign with the United States against Iran. The Israel Defense Forces said Katz, posthumously promoted from corporal, served in the 890th Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade after immigrating from the U.S., while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement publicly honoring him and offering condolences to his family. The military did not disclose the exact circumstances of his death, but it occurred amid intensified Israeli operations and evacuation orders across dozens of southern Lebanese towns and villages targeting alleged Hezbollah positions. The article notes that the UN refugee agency warns Lebanon is on the brink of a humanitarian “catastrophe,” with about one in five residents — roughly 1 million people — displaced, and that Israel’s National Institute for Security Studies estimates at least 1,116 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Iran war began. Katz’s death underscores how U.S.-linked families are being drawn into the expanding conflict and will likely resonate with American Jewish communities and others who have relatives serving in the IDF.