Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on May 19 that two soldiers were killed by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.
The two soldiers, both from the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, were killed and another two soldiers and an officer of the same unit were seriously wounded as a result of a blast in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in the Rafah area in southern Gaza.
In a separate incident, a reservist of the 5832nd Combat Engineering Battalion was seriously wounded in Rafah after his D9 armored bulldozer was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, the IDF said.
The latest deaths brought the toll of slain troops in the IDF’s ground offensive against the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions in Gaza and in operations on the border to 282. In addition, more than 1,500 others have been wounded, so far.
On May 18, the al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released videos showing clashes with the IDF in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, an attack with explosive devices against Israeli troops in the al-Zaitun neighborhood in nearby Gaza City, a mortar attack on Rafah and a recent rocket attack on the Israeli city of Be’er-Sheva to the east of the Strip.
On the same day, Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, released video footage showing an attack on an Israeli AH-64 Apache attack helicopter over Gaza using a Soviet-made SA-7 man-portable air defense system.
Separately, the IDF said on May 18 that it had recovered the body of an additional hostage from Gaza. The hostage was named as 53-year-old Ron Benjamin, who was captured by Hamas on the morning of October 7 surprise attack.
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Benjamin was killed on the day of the attack near the settlement of Mefalsim, and his body was then taken to Gaza. His body was recovered alongside those of Itzhak Gelerenter, Amit Buskila, and Shani Louk in the May 16 night operation in the Strip.
It is reported that 125 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 surprise attack remain in Gaza -not all of them are thought to be alive- after 105 civilians were released from captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Three hostages have been allegedly freed by Israeli troops alive, and the bodies of 16 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the IDF.
The Israeli war has clearly failed to free the hostages, despite its heavy human cost. The war has so far claimed the lives of 35,386 Palestinians and left more than 79,366 others wounded, according to the latest update by the Hamas-run health ministry. Most of the victims were women and children.
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