An Israeli commando was shot dead during fighting in Gaza City, the military announced Wednesday morning, raising Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas and military operations along the border with the Strip to 327.
Sgt. First Class Tal Lahat, 21, of the Maglan commando unit, was killed on Tuesday afternoon in a Hamas-claimed sniper attack in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City.
In a morning update, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that troops, including the Maglan unit, had raided UNRWA’s headquarters in Gaza City — located near the Rimal and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods.
The military asserted that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had used the facility to carry out attacks against troops.
The raid was conducted by the Commando Brigade and the elite Multi-Domain Unit, which had joined the IDF’s 99th Division in a new operation in southern and western areas of Gaza City. The IDF reported that it had first opened a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the UNRWA facility area.
During the raid, troops killed and detained several gunmen and located a large amount of weapons, according to the IDF.
On Monday, the Israeli military launched the new operation in Gaza City, stating at the time that it was operating in the area of the UNRWA headquarters, where the IDF had previously found significant Hamas tunnel infrastructure and had killed and captured numerous gunmen.
The IDF was pursuing Palestinian terror operatives in Gaza City, six months after it claimed to have dismantled Hamas’s “military framework” in the territory’s north.
