Reserves officer killed by sniper fire in north Gaza fighting
Itamar Levin Fridman killed in Jabalia after a week with no Israeli deaths, IDF says; Palestinians report tanks rolling into central Gaza; bag of ammo found in internal aid convoy
An Israel Defense Forces reserves officer was killed amid fighting in Gaza, the army announced Monday, as tanks rolled into a central Gaza town and a humanitarian zone in the south of the enclave.
Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Fridman, 34, was killed during operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said. Fridman, a high school math teacher and father of two, was in Gaza as part of the LOTAR Eilat unit, an elite squad tasked with protecting the Red Sea resort city from terror attacks.
According to an IDF probe, he was hit by sniper fire in Jabalia, an area in northern Gaza that has been the focus of the army’s efforts in the enclave in recent weeks.
Fridman’s death marks the first fatality among troops fighting in Gaza since November 2, when three soldiers were killed in separate incidents in the northern part of the Strip.
A total of 371 troops have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a ground offensive aimed at toppling the Hamas terror group and recovering the hostages kidnapped during the October 7 onslaught.
Gazans said Monday that Israel sent tanks into the western side of the Nuseirat camp, which houses refugees from Israel’s creation 76 years ago and their descendants, causing panic among residents and displaced families who have fled there during the war.
“Some people couldn’t leave and remained trapped inside their homes, appealing to be allowed out, while others rushed out with whatever they could carry as they fled,” said Zaik Mohammad, 25, who lives one kilometer (0.6 miles) away from the targeted area, via a chat application.
There was no comment from the Israeli military and the tank movement did not appear to be part of a major operation.
The IDF has carried out several small raids on the outskirts of Nuseirat in recent months, but no major push into the town where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are residing.
Officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip said some two dozen people were killed in strikes late Sunday and Monday.
At the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, 20 people were killed in a series of strikes from the air and ground, including one that hit a tent encampment, health officials there said.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, where Israeli forces have operated since October 5, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike. Others were reported killed in airstrikes in Gaza City.
Medics at Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya reported that three medical workers were wounded by Israeli fire from a drone. The IDF said troops captured dozens of Hamas operatives during a raid on the hospital last month.
Hamas claims over 43,000 Gazans have been killed since the start of the offensive, though the numbers cannot be verified and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Israel says it has killed some 18,000 combatants in battle as of November, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7, 2023 attack.
It says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israeli forces have besieged three hospitals in and around Jabalia for several weeks and hospital officials say they have refused orders to evacuate the facilities or leave their patients unattended amid claims of dwindling food and other supplies.
The IDF says that 220 patients and escorts were evacuated from hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip over the past month, in coordination with the World Health Organization.
The evacuations were “accompanied by the entry of 50,000 liters of fuel, 180 units of blood, and hundreds of boxes of medical supplies and food to support the essential operations of hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip,” the army has said.
On Monday, the military said it had expanded its “humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza, where the vast majority of the Palestinian population in the Strip currently resides.
It also said it would allow more tents, shelter materials, food, water, and medical supplies to enter.
According to a map released by the IDF, several neighborhoods of Khan Younis and some areas on the outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp were being added to the humanitarian zone.
The zone is where most aid is directed, and where several field hospitals have been established. Its size has changed multiple times, given evolving IDF operations against the Hamas terror group.
The zone expansion came as a deadline approached for the US to assess that Israel has improved supplies of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The army also said it discovered a bag of ammunition while inspecting an aid convoy moving between northern and southern Gaza on Sunday.
The convoy had been coordinated with the international community and was being monitored by the IDF, the military said. After unusual movements aroused suspicion, the convoy was inspected and a bag of firearm ammunition was found.
Some of those transporting the convoy were detained for questioning, and “inquiries were also made with the relevant organization,” the army said.
“It is important to note that this was an internal convoy traveling inside the Gaza Strip from the north to the south, and not through the crossings designated for bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the IDF added.
