IDF announces soldier and police officer were killed during fighting in Gaza City

An IDF soldier and a police officer were killed during fighting in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood on Friday afternoon, the military and police announce.

The slain soldier is named as Cpt. Ido Voloch, 21, a platoon commander in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion, from Jerusalem, and the police officer is named as Sgt. Neta Yitzhak Kahane, of the Border Police’s Yamas covert unit.

According to an initial IDF probe, during operations in Shejaiya, 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 the exchange of fire, the Yamas officer was killed.

Rescue forces were then dispatched to the scene to extract the troops at the ambush site. Fifteen minutes later, 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. One of the RPGs 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.