An Israel Defense Forces reservist was killed and two others were seriously wounded battling Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza on Thursday, the army announced on Friday morning.
The military named the slain soldier as Master Sgt. (res.) Asaf Cafri, 26, a tank driver in the 14th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 79th Battalion, from Beit Hashmonai near Ramla in central Israel. He was promoted from the rank of Sgt. 1st Class following his death.
In the same incident in the northern Strip, a fellow reservist of the 79th Battalion and an officer in the Yahalom special forces engineering unit sustained serious wounds. The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital and their families were notified, the IDF said.
According to an initial IDF probe, Cafri, who was outside his tank, was killed by terrorist sniper fire in the Beit Hanoun area, near one of the army’s posts in the IDF-controlled buffer zone.
The two other soldiers were subsequently wounded by anti-tank fire launched by the terrorists, according to the initial investigation.
On March 19, Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a Bedouin tracker from the southern Israeli city of Rahat, was killed during an exchange of fire with Hamas terrorists in the Beit Hanoun area.
Hamas operatives emerged from a concealed tunnel and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an IDF vehicle. A secondary explosive device was detonated shortly thereafter, wounding several troops and fatally injuring Alnasasra. Three additional soldiers were seriously hurt in the attack.
Alnasasra’s loss was the first Israeli combat death in Gaza since the expiration of the ceasefire and resumption of hostilities on March 18.
As of Friday, 849 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault, including 412 during the ground campaign in the Strip.
