A 21-year-old Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reserve soldier on Saturday was confirmed to be the latest casualty of the country's war in Gaza. Sgt. First Class (res.) Idan Keinan of the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion was identified as the 376th Israeli soldier killed ever since the ground offensive against Hamas began after the October 7 attacks.
The IDF was quoted as saying by Israeli media that Sgt. First Class Idan Keinan was hit by sniper fire while in the line of duty in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya. The soldier will be buried in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in northern Tel Aviv, reports added.
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Keinan hailed from Ramat Gan, a city in the Tel Aviv district. The soldier's death was confirmed by the IDF not long after Hamas confirmed Israeli Air Force had claimed several lives.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Keinan's family shared with the country what the young soldier had told his grandmother in a letter a couple of months back. “If the Father in Heaven decides that someone needs to die for our people, it is the greatest merit in the world,” the soldier wrote. “I know what the dangers are and what could happen and I am at peace with that, and more than that, this is the path that I chose and this is the path that I believe every man in the country should choose,” the late soldier had written.
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Lamenting the loss of her brother who “died as a hero,” Keinan's sister jotted on social media, “How did they take you from us? I will never manage to get over a loss such as you.”
Israel-Hamas war in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed six people in Nuseirat and another four in Bureij, two built-up refugee camps in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Another two people were killed in a strike on Gaza's main north-south highway, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah, which received all 12 bodies.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says around 43,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities. Around 90 percent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians have been displaced, and large areas of the territory have been flattened by Israeli bombardment and ground operations.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people mostly civilians and abducting 250 others. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead.