An Israel Defense Forces reservist was killed fighting Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, the military announced on Monday evening.
IDF Maj. (res.) Itamar Levin Fridman, 34, from the Red Sea city of Eilat, served as a commander in his hometown’s Lotar counter-terrorism unit, a special forces team whose mission is to protect the safety of residents and tourists in southern Israel, and specializes in the rescue of hostages.
Fridman was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Palestinian terrorists.
The military launched a major operation in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia in early October, following indications of a Hamas resurgence there.
On Friday, the army announced that Master Sgt. (res.) Guy Shabtay, 39, of the Alon Brigade’s 8207th Battalion, from Jerusalem, succumbed after being wounded while fighting in Southern Lebanon two weeks earlier.
On Thursday, IDF Sgt. Ariel Sosnov Sasonov, 20, from the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed by a Lebanese rocket in northern Israel.
The IDF military death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of the ground operation there on Oct. 27, 2023, stands at 369, while the official figure for all fronts since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre is 783.
Additionally, Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, a member of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the Strip in May.
