IDF soldier killed in combat in northern Gaza

An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the military announced.

The slain soldier was named as Sgt. Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, from Ra’anana.

According to an initial IDF probe, Rosenfeld was killed by an explosive device during operations in the Kafr Jabalia area.

His death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 441.

Sunday also saw reports of yet another mass casualty event attributed to IDF fire — in what has become a near-daily occurrence — near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Earlier, the military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in the northern part of the Strip, expecting intensified fighting against Hamas.

At the same time, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Jerusalem was actively working to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal. Top officials are expected to meet Sunday night to discuss the war and negotiation efforts.

Palestinian and Arab media outlets reported Sunday that five people were killed and dozens more injured by Israeli army fire near an aid distribution site operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza’s Rafah area.

No footage from the scene has been published so far. There has been no comment from the IDF.

According to health authorities in the Hamas-run Strip, nearly 500 people have been killed, allegedly by Israeli forces, near GHF aid distribution sites, which are set up in areas controlled by the IDF and far from population centers. The GHF has denied responsibility for the deaths, noting that it is operating in a war zone.

Israeli officials have said soldiers sometimes fire on suspects who deviate from approved paths and who are deemed to be endangering the forces, and have suggested the victim numbers have been exaggerated.

Gaza’s Hamas-linked civil defense agency said that Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 17 people, including three children, throughout Gaza on Sunday.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 16 people died in airstrikes at five locations around the Strip, and another from Israeli fire near an aid distribution center.

Bassal said two children were killed in an airstrike on their home in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood in the early morning, and that “the house was completely destroyed.”

A member of the family, Abdel Rahman Azzam, 45, told AFP he was at home and “heard a huge explosion at my relative’s house.”

“I rushed out in panic and saw the house destroyed and on fire,” he added.

“We evacuated more than 20 injured people, including two martyrs, two children from the family. The screams of children and women were nonstop,” Azzam said.

“They bombed the house with a missile without any prior warning. This is a horrific crime. We sleep without knowing if we will wake up.”

Elsewhere, Bassal said a drone strike on a tent housing displaced people near the southern city of Khan Younis killed five people including a child.

The IDF says it targets terror operatives in Gaza who it accuses of embedding within the civilian population.

A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday that Jerusalem was continuing to work actively on a hostage-truce deal in Gaza.

It would come after months of stagnation following the last deal’s collapse in March, when Israel refused to enter talks for a permanent end to the war.

“There are ongoing contacts through the mediating countries, and we are in continuous contact with the Americans,” said the official.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to hold a meeting Sunday night about the war in Gaza and attempts to reach a deal at IDF Southern Command headquarters in Beersheba.

Overnight, US President Donald Trump called for Israel to “make the deal in Gaza.”

Also on Sunday, the Jerusalem District Court announced it was canceling Netanyahu’s scheduled testimony in his criminal trial this week, partially acceding to a request that it be delayed for the next two weeks due to diplomatic and national security issues.

The heads of IDF Military Intelligence and Mossad were present in a closed-door meeting advocating the pause. The judges said substantial additional information had been provided, leading them to agree to the pause this time, after two previous requests were rejected last week.

It is not clear whether the information pertained to a deal in Gaza.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, and the body of one Israeli soldier killed in 2014. Twenty of the hostages are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 441. The toll includes two police officers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.

Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.