By Abderaouf Arnaout and Ikram Kouachi
JERUSALEM/ANKARA (AA) - A local council in central Israel confirmed on Friday the death of an Israeli soldier in southern Gaza where Israel has been conducting a deadly military offensive against Palestinians for the past 20 months.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the Southern Sharon Regional Council announced in a statement the death of Sergeant Yoav Royer from Sde Warburg who was killed in battle in southern Gaza.
Hebrew-language Telegram news channels, including Hadshot B’zman, reported that multiple soldiers were killed or injured in an ambush in the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza. However, there has been no official statement from the Israeli military confirming the incident.
According to official Israeli army figures, 862 soldiers have been killed since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, including 420 in battles within Gaza. An additional 5,921 soldiers have been injured, of whom 2,687 were wounded during ground assaults in the enclave.
However, the Israeli military is widely accused of concealing the true extent of its losses. Palestinian factions have frequently reported successful operations and ambushes resulting in casualties, which are often unacknowledged by the Israeli army.
Israel imposes strict military censorship on its media regarding human and material losses from attacks by Palestinian factions, reportedly to maintain public morale.
Israel, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a genocidal offensive in Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among the enclave's more than 2 million inhabitants.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against civilians in the enclave.