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The Israeli army acknowledged late Saturday that an officer was killed and three soldiers, including a female officer, were seriously wounded during a battle in the northern Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
The announcement came as the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that its fighters conducted a “complex ambush” of Israeli soldiers and destroyed a tank and bulldozer in Gaza City.
“Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35 years old, from the city of Rahat (south), was killed,” said the army.
It added that “a female officer and two other soldiers were seriously injured” in the same incident.
While the army did not disclose details of the battle or its precise location, Al-Qassam Brigades said its fighters ambushed an Israeli force advancing in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City (north), resulting in “killed and wounded” soldiers.
READ: Al-Qassam Brigades release video message from Israeli captive
The group said it targeted a Merkava-4 Israeli tank and a D9 military bulldozer with two “Yassin 105” shells in the Jabal al-Sourani area in eastern Al-Tuffah, causing the vehicles to catch fire.
The deaths brought the number of Israeli military fatalities acknowledged by the army since the launch of its war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to 847, including 408 since the beginning of the ground offensive on Oct. 27 of that year
According to figures by the Israel army, which has been widely accused of downplaying actual losses, 5,780 officers and soldiers have been wounded since the war began, including 2,603 in ground battles.
More than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.