One more Israeli officer killed in northern Gaza, 15 soldiers wounded

JERUSALEM (AA) – One more Israeli army officer was killed in northern Gaza, the Israeli army said, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since October 7 to 502.

“Captain Harel Sharvit, 33, in the army’s 7008th Battalion, was killed in a battle in northern Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.

An officer and a soldier from the College of Military Engineering were also “seriously” injured in separate battles in the northern Gaza Strip, the army added.

The latest fatality brought the death toll of Israeli soldiers since October 7 to 502, including 168 officers and soldiers who were killed during the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 27.

The Israeli army also said on Friday that 15 more of its soldiers were injured in the Gaza Strip, three of them seriously.

The army said in a statement that 936 soldiers have been injured since Israel launched ground offensives in Gaza on Oct. 27.

The army statement said 209 of the 936 wounded soldiers received serious injuries, 345 received moderate harm, and 382 received minor wounds.

Israel has continued relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 21,320 Palestinians and injuring 55,603, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.