Five more Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, IDF death toll at 42 since ground invasion
The Israeli army released the names of five additional soldiers who were killed in action during fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Four of the soldiers served together in the 551st Brigade’s 697th Battalion, in an elite reserve brigade, and were killed in the same incident in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.
The troops were conducting scans of an area with several underground tunnel shafts when a powerful explosion of a concealed booby trap in one of the shafts killed four soldiers and seriously injured six others.
The fallen soldiers of the 551st Brigade were identified as follows: Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, 39, a company commander from Ein Tzurim; Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, 44, from Gevaot; Master Sgt. (res.) Matan Meir, 38, from Odem; and Master Sgt. (res.) Sergey Shmerkin, 32, from Kiryat Shmona.
In addition, Master Sgt. (res.) Netanel (Nati) Harush, 34, a soldier in the Givati Brigade’s logistics unit, from Jerusalem, was also killed.
These five deaths bring the total number of deaths of IDF soldiers in Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza to 42.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
