The Israeli army announced on Friday the death of a soldier and three others seriously wounded during ongoing ground battles with the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip.
“Sergeant Uri Gerbi, 20, from the Givati Brigade was killed as a result of serious injuries sustained in battle in the southern part of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
“Three soldiers were seriously injured in battle in the central and northern parts of the Strip,” it added.
The army did not provide any additional details of the battles that led to the death of Gerbi or the injuries of the three soldiers.
According to the latest official toll, the number of Israeli officers and soldiers killed in the ranks of the army since the beginning of the war hit 530, including 194 since the start of the ground war in Gaza.
The Palestinian Resistance groups, however, stated that the number is much higher. On Thursday alone, Al-Qassam Brigades announced in a statement the killing and wounding of over 40 Israeli soldiers in various fighting axes.
Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, stated that the estimates provided by the Israeli army are “unreal,” and that the numbers of casualties are much higher.
On January 12, the Israeli newspaper Walla reported that 4,000 Israeli soldiers have become disabled since the beginning of the war on Gaza on October 7 and estimates suggest that the number could rise to 30,000.
The site also said that the Israeli army “does not provide all data about the wounded to the public, for fear that it will lower people’s morale.”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 24,762 Palestinians have been killed, and 62,108 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
