IOF Fatality in Gaza After Agreement Breach

By Staff, Agencies

The "Israeli" occupation forces [IOF] command confirmed on Wednesday that an "Israeli" reservist was killed in an attack in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip, marking the third "Israeli" fatality since the latest Gaza ceasefire took effect earlier this month.

The IOF member, a reservist Master Sergeant, was a heavy machinery operator in the IOF's Gaza Division. The reservist was killed while operating an excavator in the Jenina neighborhood of Rafah, where the IOF are destroying homes and other infrastructure, amid the ongoing ceasefire agreement.

Jenina lies within what is recognized as the area east of the yellow line, which is the area inside the Gaza Strip in which IOF have repositioned themselves following their initial withdrawal.

Two other IOF members were killed in the same neighborhood last week when an unexploded ordnance was set off during excavation works, media reports revealed.

At the time, the IOF command blamed Hamas for the death of the “Israeli” forces, although sources within the US administration pointed to the accidental nature of the incident last week, which the Palestinian Resistance denied involvement in.

At the time, the "Israeli" occupation entity ordered intense airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, claiming dozens in the besieged enclave. "Israel" made assertions about a supposed attack by Resistance fighters who allegedly fired rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs] at forces in Jenina, claims it has repeated regarding Tuesday's incident.

"Israeli" authorities also said that the remains of a body transferred earlier today by the Palestinian Resistance, as part of the exchange arrangement, belonged to a captive whose partial remains had already been returned in a previous handover.

Using the mix-up and the death of the "Israeli" reservist in Rafah as a pretext, the "Israeli" entity launched a series of strikes on Gaza that have martyred at least 100 Palestinians.

As a result of the strikes, al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said that it will postpone handing over the remains of bodies it located on Tuesday due to the intense "Israeli" escalation.

Al-Qassam Brigades later revealed that it was able to recover the bodies of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch. The brigades explained that "Israeli" strikes on the Gaza Strip are debilitating search and excavation operations, which would delay exchanges.

It is worth noting that authorities in Gaza, under international supervision, are excavating multiple sites bombed by "Israeli" aircraft in the Gaza Strip to recover the bodies and remains of captives buried under the rubble.