19-year-old Israeli soldier, Sgt. Ira Yair Gispan was killed Tuesday during the ongoing military offensive in the southern Gaza Strip’s Rafah area. This marks the first Israeli fatality in the controversial Rafah operation. The military announced his death Wednesday.
The slain soldier comes from Petah Tikva and served in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 75th Battalion.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been advancing into Rafah, capturing a Hamas training camp in eastern Rafah and engaging in heavy fighting, which included eliminating several gunmen, capturing weapons and even finding fake IDF vehicles that Hamas had been using for their own training. The operation began last week and is being described as a “precise” one as soldiers are currently working in a small area southeast of the city.
The young man’s death brings the count of fallen soldiers from the ground offensive up to 273.
