Two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza as troops continue to advance in center of Strip
Staff Sgt. Amit Tsadikov, 20, killed in Khan Younis, Master Sgt. Shlomo Hazut, 36, slain in Gaza City; military calls on Palestinians in small section of humanitarian zone to evacuate
As ceasefire talks continued in Cairo and the world’s attention was focused on the escalation in violence along Israel’s northern border, IDF troops continued to battle Hamas throughout Gaza on Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces also issued new evacuation orders for a portion of the designated humanitarian zone, while reports in Gaza said a number of Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
The military announced on Sunday the deaths of two IDF soldiers — Staff Sgt. Amit Tsadikov, 20, who was killed fighting in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis a day earlier, and Master Sgt. (res.) Shlomo Yehonatan Hazut, 36, who was killed earlier in the day in Gaza City.
Their deaths bring Israel’s toll in the offensive against Hamas to 340, while Tsadikov was the 700th fallen soldier recognized by the IDF since the start of the terror group’s October 7 onslaught on southern Israel. By Sunday evening, that figure had already risen to 702, after a sailor was also killed amid the Hezbollah attack in the north.
According to an initial IDF probe, an explosive device killed Tsadikov, a Beit Dagan resident who served in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion.
Hazut, of the Jerusalem Brigade’s 9207th Battalion, from Ashdod, was hit by an explosive device planted on a road in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, the IDF said. Another soldier was seriously wounded in the incident.
Separately, a soldier in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion was seriously wounded fighting in southern Gaza and brought to a hospital for treatment, the IDF said.
Also Sunday, the IDF issued a call for Palestinians in a small section of the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah to evacuate.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, published a map of the zone that needs to be evacuated, and said that troops will “forcefully operate” against terror groups in the area.
“For your safety, we urge you to evacuate immediately to the west. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone,” Adraee added.
The size of the humanitarian zone has changed multiple times, amid evolving IDF operations against the Hamas terror group.
The zone is currently around 42 square kilometers, or 11% of the total size of the Gaza Strip. According to IDF estimates, some 1.9 million Palestinians of the 2.3 million Gazan population are residing in the zone.
Meanwhile, an AFP correspondent reported strikes and shelling in Gaza City, in the Strip’s north. Rescuers said at least three people were killed. Witnesses told AFP that battles also raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, farther south.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said three more people were killed and dozens injured in a drone strike near Deir al-Balah’s Al-Anan Stadium. The agency reported artillery fire and drone strikes on the nearby Bureij refugee camp as well.
According to Wafa, Israel also fired artillery on Gaza City’s southeastern Zeitoun neighborhood and launched airstrikes on the al-Oyoun junction, west of the city.
The fighting continued as Israel’s delegation returned to Cairo for hostages-for-ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Negotiators’ hopes to avoid all-out regional war were underlined early Sunday when the IDF struck some 40 targets in Lebanon, thwarting Hezbollah’s plan to launch hundreds of rockets at Israel.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll, which cannot be verified, does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
The October 7 onslaught saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
AFP contributed to this report.
