The Israeli military confirmed on Tuesday that an officer was killed during confrontations in Gaza City.

The soldier was identified as a company commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Migdal Haemek, an Israeli settlement built on the land of the Palestinian village al-Mujaydil, which was occupied in 1948.

According to an initial military probe, the officer sustained critical injuries on Monday after a Hamas fighter fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at one of the battalion’s tanks amid the fighting. He was evacuated to a hospital, where his condition deteriorated and he later died.

His death is the first reported Israeli military casualty in the renewed assault on Gaza City, which the IOF began last week as part of its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Al-Qassam attacks Merkava tank in Gaza City, inflicts casualties

Israeli media have also acknowledged that a combat officer from the Shaked battalion of the Givati Brigade was seriously wounded on Monday during a close-quarters clash with Palestinian fighters in Gaza City.

Meanwhile, the al-Qassam Brigades announced they targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with a high-explosive landmine near the al-Bara'a mosque, south of the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City, clarifying the operation was conducted on September 19.

Despite the intense Israeli aggression and siege, the Palestinian Resistance continues to carry out operations and ambushes, inflicting both material and human losses on the Israeli forces.

Israeli media confirmed that on September 18, four soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded when an explosive device targeted their Humvee in an area that had been considered a "safe zone for Israeli operations," describing the incident as extremely difficult.

Gaza will be the graveyard of Israeli soldiers: Al-Qassam

The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance, recently issued a stark warning to the military and political leadership of the Israeli entity, asserting that Gaza will not be an easy battleground for the occupation's "cowardly army."

In the statement, the brigades declared, “We do not fear you. We are prepared to send your soldiers' souls to hell. We have built an army of martyrs, prepared thousands of ambushes and explosive devices, and Gaza will be the graveyard of your soldiers.”

The Resistance warned that the occupation is engaged in a brutal war of attrition that will only lead to more casualties and captives on its side.

“Our fighters have been trained to place explosive devices inside your military vehicles. Your bulldozers will become primary targets, and a path to increasing the number of captives we hold.”

The brigades emphasized that Israeli captives are dispersed across the neighborhoods of Gaza City, and their fate is tied to the decisions made by the entity’s leadership: “We will not be concerned for the lives of your prisoners, as long as Netanyahu has chosen to kill them. The continuation and expansion of this criminal operation guarantees that you will receive none of your prisoners, neither alive nor dead. Their fate will be the same as that of Ron Arad.”

The statement concluded with a powerful declaration, “It is a struggle for victory or martyrdom.”

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