Elazar Yair Wilensky was 14. On Monday, unexploded Hezbollah ammunition detonated during a school trip near the Lebanese border, killing him and injuring 24 others. His family buried a boy whom mourners remembered as “a child full of joy, a good and beloved friend.”
The blast struck the Manara mountain range, about 50 to 100 metres from the border, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported. The site lies near an Israeli military post where combat engineering troops had served during the war, and which came under heavy Hezbollah fire. The fighting left its mark on the ground.
What the Students Saw
Students from ORT Ma’alot religious high school found the munition while hiking near the border, Haaretz reported. Some handled it. Others photographed themselves with it. “He was playing with the bomb,” one student told the paper. “Some of the kids told him to leave it, but no one thought it contained explosives. We continued along the trail and stopped to pray at one point. After the prayer, he played with it again, put it back in his bag, and then there was a massive explosion.”
The Israeli military alleged that Hezbollah fired the device, a cluster munition, during the war. No independent account has established its origin.
Who Was Responsible for the Route?
An initial investigation found that authorities had neither physically sealed off nor clearly marked a nearby restricted zone. Now agencies are pointing fingers at one another—and at the route itself.
Israel’s education ministry said Tuesday it was investigating whether the students left their approved route. The ministry said it had authorised the route, which complied with restrictions imposed by the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), the area’s manager. “The planned route did not pass through the prohibited area,” it said. It added that pre-trip safety instructions prohibited touching unexploded ordnance and required students to report anything they found.
KKL-JNF officials gave Haaretz a different account of the site. They said they designated the dangerous area off-limits in May 2025, about one year and five months ago, but left it physically accessible, without clear signs or barriers. The organisation said it informed the Education Ministry but had no authority to approve school trips or seal off the area.
The ministry acknowledged that it knew KKL-JNF had closed a dangerous route along the Ramim Ridge. It said it approved an alternative route that accounted for the restriction. Yet that alternative passed close to another area closed because of unexploded ordnance, where access remained unrestricted. Investigators are examining whether students strayed from the route or the ministry defined it incorrectly.
A Warning Too Late
Haaretz columnist Rogel Alpher did not mince words. Students passed the munition around, put it in bags, photographed themselves holding it and sent the images to their parents. “At least some staff were aware of what was happening, yet they let it happen. They failed to grasp the extent of the danger. The impression is that they did not guide the students, nor had anyone guided them,” Alpher wrote. “This hike, like the ones Israelis take there during the holidays, reflects ignorance and negligence.”
He added: “The selfies show that the students knew it was a bomb. Perhaps they saw it as a war souvenir, a trophy of war,” and “Their tragic complacency is part of the broader complacency that surrounds this blind state.”
On Tuesday, the US Embassy in Israel warned American citizens about unexploded ordnance across extensive areas of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The danger is particularly great near border areas, it said, where locations often lack markings. “Rain, flooding, agricultural work, and construction activities frequently bring buried munitions to the surface, making them more unstable,” the embassy said. It warned about small, round cluster bomblets that may look like balls or toys. “Assume that any unidentified object is dangerous.”
The embassy’s rule has three steps: recognize, retreat, report. People should report suspicious objects to Israel Police at 100. The embassy advised against touching ordnance, throwing objects at it, using phones or two-way radios nearby, or collecting casings, fragments or souvenirs. It urged people to stick to paved roads and familiar trails and avoid areas marked as minefields.
A War Still Unfinished
The explosion came as the war that scattered this ordnance has yet to truly end. Dozens of towns in northern Israel were evacuated during the conflict. The Israeli military still occupies parts of southern Lebanon, expanding its invasion since fighting with Hezbollah resumed in March. Israeli strikes have continued despite a framework agreement signed between Beirut and Tel Aviv in June, about four months ago.
On Monday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli attacks over the past three years had killed 8,596 people and wounded 30,660.
Why This Matters: A boy is dead because munitions from a war outlast the fighting. The problem the US Embassy flags across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza follows every front: unmarked ordnance emerges through rain, farming and construction, and ordinary people pay for it. Here, the failures are institutional. A restricted zone was off-limits on paper but open on the ground, while two agencies give different accounts of the route. For Lebanese civilians, the toll is far larger: the Health Ministry counts 8,596 dead and 30,660 wounded. A framework agreement that hasn’t stopped the strikes offers little protection to border communities on either side. Until a political settlement ends the cycle, children near the line remain exposed to what the last round left behind.