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An Israeli officer was killed in an apparent accident in the southern Gaza Strip on July 10, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced.
The slain officer was a team commander in the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit. According to an IDF probe, the incident that claimed his life took place during an ongoing offensive in Khan Younis.
Troops were operating in buildings suspected to be used by fighters of the Hamas Movement, rigging them up with mines in order to demolish them. Shortly after the buildings were mined, an explosion occurred, and the officer was hit, possibly by shrapnel or debris. He was declared dead a short while later, according to the military.
Separately, the IDF announced that two soldiers were wounded, moderately and lightly, by anti-tank fire on a tank during operations in the area of Jabalia in northern Gaza on the same day.
The death of the officer brought the number of Israeli troops killed since the start of the large-scale offensive against Hamas, codenamed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” to 32.
The IDF has been facing increasing resistance in southern and northern Gaza, with Hamas taking the lead in attacks on Israeli troops.
On July 10, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released video footage showing an attack that took place in Khan Younis a day earlier. During the attack, Hamas fighters shot and killed a soldier, a heavy engineering operator serving in the ranks of the combat engineering unit of the IDF’s Southern Command, from point blank range and attempted to snatch his body.
In total, Israel’s toll in ground operations in Gaza and along its border since the start of ground operations there has reached 451.
Despite the mounting losses, Israel is showing no willingness to end the war on Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of close to 60,000 Palestinians. Currently, 65 percent of the Strip is occupied by the IDF, which is planning to capture an additional 10 percent.
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