An Israeli soldier and a police officer were killed during fighting against Hamas in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood on Friday afternoon, the military and police announced Saturday.
The deadly incident came as the Israel Defense Forces said it was making preparations to significantly expand its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip if the hostage negotiations with the terror group continue to stall.
The slain soldier was named as Cpt. Ido Voloch, 21, a platoon commander in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion, from Jerusalem, and the police officer was named as Sgt. Neta Yitzhak Kahane, of the Border Police’s Yamas covert unit.
According to an initial IDF probe, during operations in Shejaiya — about 1.5 kilometers deep inside Gaza — troops of the Jerusalem Reserve Infantry Brigade and members of the police’s Yamas unit set up an ambush in a building.
Terror operatives arrived at the ambush site, and the Israeli forces opened fire on them at around 4:40 p.m. During an exchange of fire with the operatives, the Yamas officer was killed.
Rescue forces were then dispatched to the scene to extract the troops at the ambush site. Fifteen minutes after the initial exchange of fire, an army Humvee that tried to reach the area was hit by RPG fire, and one soldier was moderately wounded.
Nearly an hour later, several IDF tanks, part of the rescue forces, came under RPG fire from the operatives in Shejaiya. At least five RPGs were launched at the tanks, one of which killed Voloch and lightly wounded another soldier.
An hour after that, two reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 7007th Battalion were moderately wounded by RPG fire and light arms in the same area.
Meanwhile, the military warned that as long as the hostage talks with Hamas fail to advance, its offensive against Hamas would intensify.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that if no hostage deal is reached soon, the military would launch a major offensive aimed at defeating Hamas.
The intensified offensive would see the military call up a large number of reservists and operate in new areas of Gaza, according to the IDF.
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