IDF reservist injured in October by Hamas attack in southern Gaza succumbs to wounds

An IDF reservist wounded in a Hamas attack in the southern Gaza Strip in October succumbed to his wounds overnight, the military says.

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Asael Babad, 38, an infantryman with the Menashe Regional Brigade’s 941st Battalion, from the West Bank settlement of Bnei Adam, was seriously injured when Palestinian terror operatives attacked soldiers in Rafah on October 19, less than a week into a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

At the time of his injury, Babad had been serving with the Gaza Division.

According to an IDF probe, the cell of operatives emerged from a tunnel on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line and fired RPGs at an excavator, killing two troops of the Nahal Brigade. At the same time, another excavator was hit by sniper fire, wounding two more troops, one seriously and one moderately. Another soldier was moderately wounded by sniper fire a short while later, according to the initial investigation.

Babad’s death brings Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 477.