Four IDF soldiers killed in fighting in northern Gaza
Slain troops named as Orr Katz, 20; Nave Yair Asulin, 21; Gary Lalhruaikima Zolat, 21; and Ofir Eliyahu, 20; Israel’s death toll in Gaza ground operation at 375
Four soldiers were killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday, bringing the total toll from the previous day to five.
The slain troops were named as:
- Staff Sgt. Orr Katz, 20, from Ma’ale Adumim.
- Staff Sgt. Nave Yair Asulin, 21, from Carmit.
- Staff Sgt. Gary Lalhruaikima Zolat, 21, from Afula.
- Staff Sgt. Ofir Eliyahu, 20, from Holon.
The soldiers all served with the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were hit by an RPG fired into a building they were in, in the far north of the Strip.
The Kfir Brigade has been operating in the Beit Lahiya area, close to Jabalia, amid an ongoing operation against Hamas in northern Gaza.
Their deaths brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and during military operations along the border with the Strip to 375. The number includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry contractor.
On Monday, another soldier was killed in a separate incident of sniper fire in Jabalia. He was named as Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Fridman, 34.
IDF troops operate in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, in a handout photo published November 5, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF’s offensive in Jabalia began in early October, the fourth push into the northern Gaza refugee camp since the start of the war a year ago. The military has said that this operation will finally break Hamas’s forces in Jabalia, which it has called the “most significant center of gravity” for the terror group in northern Gaza.
The IDF claims that more than 55,000 civilians have left Jabalia after Hamas was allegedly forcing them to stay there to act as a human shield for their activities. Some 60,000 Palestinians were estimated to have been in Jabalia before the latest operation was launched last month.
The population has largely moved to Gaza City, with only a few dozen crossing the IDF’s Netzarim Corridor and heading to the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south.
Last week, the IDF estimated that only a few hundred people were left in Jabalia, both civilians and combatants. Several thousand Palestinians also remain in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and other northern Gaza towns, where the military is also operating against Hamas as part of the ongoing offensive.
A Palestinian man stares at the rubble of the Alloush family’s house, leveled in an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
The army said it has killed over 1,000 Hamas operatives in the renewed Jabalia offensive, adding that it has taken over 1,000 operatives into custody.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says that over 43,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza, though the numbers cannot be verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
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