Israeli Soldier Killed In Gaza, First Since Collapse Of Ceasefire With Hamas
The Israeli military announced on Saturday that an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were seriously injured during a combat in northern Gaza, the first fatality since the Hamas ceasefire collapsed in March.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said Sergeant Major Ghaleb Sliman Al-Nasasra, 35, fell during combat in northern Gaza. In a post on X, IDF said: "Warrant Officer G'haleb Sliman Alnasasra, aged 35 from the Bedouin community in Rahat, a tracker in the Northern Brigade, Gaza Division, fell during combat in northern Gaza."
"During the incident in which he fell, another tracker in the Northern Brigade was severely injured. Additionally, two soldiers in the Border Protection Corps were severely injured during combat in northern Gaza," lieutenant colonel Nadav Shoshani, IDF's international spokesperson wrote on X.
"The IDF expresses its deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. May his memory be a blessing."
The soldier was killed during the operations of the 252nd Division near northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli military has been working to clear the area near the border of Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels in a move to expand Israel's buffer zone, which now covers over 30 percent of the Gaza Strip, The Times Of Israel reported.
An initial IDF investigation reported that at 12:58 PM, a group of soldiers travelling on a military logistics road near an army encampment inside Gaza came under attack by Hamas operatives. The operatives emerged from a tunnel shaft and fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at the unarmored military vehicle.
This injured three servicewomen of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit. Two of them were listed in serious condition.
Thereafter, Hamas operatives set off another explosive device on the roadside near rescue forces that had reached the scene along with trackers from the brigade. This killed Al-Nasara and wounded two other trackers, including one seriously, the report said.
Around 400 Israeli soldiershave been killed in the Gaza offensives since the military launched a ground assault on the Palestinian territory on October 27, 2023.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas's southern Israel invasion from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
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