IDF says soldier held captive in Gaza was killed on October 7, body held by Hamas

The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday the death of soldier Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, 19, who was killed and abducted by Hamas on October 7, as the war against the terror group raged for its 107th day.

Levinson served in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, and his body was taken hostage from the Nahal Oz area, following a battle with terrorists during the Hamas onslaught.

His death was recently declared by the Military Rabbinate based on findings and new intelligence information.

While Levinson’s body remains in Gaza, his family can sit shiva, the traditional Jewish week-long mourning period, according to Jewish law, religious authorities said.

Earlier in the day, the IDF announced the death of a soldier during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend, bringing the toll of slain troops in the ground offensive against Hamas to 195.

The fallen soldier was named as Sgt. First Class (res.) Uriel Aviad Silberman, 23, of the Kiryati Brigade’s 7421st Battalion, from Nehalim. The army said that another officer and a soldier of the same battalion were seriously wounded in the same battle.

Meanwhile, the campaign to eliminate Hamas persisted, with reservists of the Yiftah Brigade operating in central Gaza’s Maghazi camp locating a weapons manufacturing plant and a nearby rocket launcher armed with projectiles, the IDF said Sunday.

The military said the troops raided a Hamas site in Maghazi, where they located machinery used to build firearms in the yard of a home. Nearby, a rocket launcher was found, it said.

Reservists of the Yiftah Brigade operating in central Gaza’s Maghazi camp located a weapons manufacturing plant and a nearby rocket launcher armed with projectiles, the IDF says.

The IDF says the troops raided a Hamas site in Maghazi, where they located machinery used to build… pic.twitter.com/LnIywb3AuC

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The machinery, weapons, rockets and rocket launcher were all later destroyed.

During the operation, the IDF said Hamas operatives fired an RPG at one of the unit’s tanks. The soldiers spotted the squad behind the attack, returned fire, and called in an airstrike, it said.

Some of the operatives were killed, while at least one fled and was later killed in a gun battle with troops, after being spotted by the Yiftah Brigade’s observation company.

Despite the extensive operations, Hamas proved it was still capable of firing rockets, with warning sirens sounding in the Gaza border towns of Sufa, Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha in the afternoon.

The communities bordering Gaza have been largely evacuated of civilians since October 7.

Following a flight over the Strip with the Israeli Air Force’s 100th Squadron, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF will further expand its ground offensive in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

“We are carrying out an intensive operation in the Khan Younis area, and it will continue to expand,” said Gallant.

“The plumes of smoke from the tanks, artillery, and Air Force planes, will continue to cover the skies of the Gaza Strip until we achieve our goals, chief among them, the defeat of Hamas and the return of hostages to their homes,” he added.

According to media reports, Hamas’s leaders in Gaza are believed to be hiding in tunnels in the city, likely surrounded by hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement Sunday that Israel completely rejects Hamas’s demands for “surrender” in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages in Gaza, as the United States, Egypt and Qatar were said to push a long-term plan to end the war, free hostages and set a path to a two-state solution.

“So far, we’ve brought home 110 hostages, and we are committed to bringing them all back,” said Netanyahu. “I am working on this around the clock. But let it be clear: I reject outright the terms of surrender of the Hamas monsters.”

The prime minister said in exchange for releasing the hostages: “Hamas is demanding the end of the war, the exit of our forces from Gaza, releasing all the murderers and rapists of the Nukhba [forces] and leaving Hamas intact.”

Netanyahu also doubled down on his rejection of the idea of a fully-fledged Palestinian state, after CNN reported that he told US President Joe Biden he had not ruled out a two-state solution completely, drawing ire from ministers within his coalition.

He insisted Israel will achieve “total victory,” after which, “there will be no entity in Gaza that finances terrorism, educates for terrorism or sends our terror.”

Netanyahu demanded that Gaza be demilitarized under Israel’s full security control. However, he has not explicitly ruled out the prospect of a demilitarized Palestinian state.

The war erupted when Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel and invaded southern communities on October 7, massacring some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 253 others. Israel in response launched a massive military operation aimed at eliminating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, over 25,000 people have been killed in the IDF campaign, mostly women and children. These figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires.

The IDF says it has killed over 9,000 terror operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. That figure was somewhat corroborated by US intelligence agency assessments over the weekend, in a Wall Street Journal report that said the IDF has killed 20-30% of Hamas’s fighters in the Strip.

The IDF has assessed that fighting in Gaza will likely last throughout all of 2024, as Israel works to strip Hamas of its military and governing capabilities. It has also vowed to continue fighting until all remaining hostages are released from captivity.

It is believed that 132 of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November.

Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.

Hamas is also holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015 respectively.