Israel Defense Forces Staff Sgt. Yishai Mann, 21, a soldier from the Nahal Infantry Brigade’s 50th Battalion, died in an operational accident near the border with the Gaza Strip, the army said on Tuesday.
Mann, a resident of Mitzpe Yericho in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, died in a car accident, the military said.
He is survived by his parents, Michael and Dina, and siblings Avigail, Moriah and Akiva, the Binyamin Regional Council said in a message to residents.
“We bow our heads for the great loss and embrace the dear parents and siblings,” council head Israel Ganz said. “We feel the great and difficult price of the revival of the State of Israel. We will not weaken. We will continue with our heads held high for a full victory thanks to Yishai and his friends, and thanks to the Mann family and other heroic families.”
In addition, a soldier from Battalion 9203 of the 3rd “Alexandroni” Brigade, a reserve infantry unit, was seriously wounded while fighting Hezbollah terrorists in Southern Lebanon on Tuesday morning, the IDF said.
The wounded soldier was evacuated to a hospital and his family was informed of the incident, the military statement added.
The death toll among Israel Defense Forces troops since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre now stands at 750, according to official figures.
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 the Gaza Strip in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded in the enclave in May.
On Sunday, IDF Col. Ehsan Daksa, 41, the commander of the ]401st Armored Brigade, was killed in action in the northern Gaza Strip.
A member of the Jewish state’s Druze minority, Daksa was the highest-ranking officer to be killed since the start of the Gaza campaign on Oct. 27, along with Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, head of the Golani Brigade chief’s forward command team, who was killed in an ambush on Dec. 12.
Daksa was fatally wounded when an explosive device was detonated after he exited a tank in Jabaliya, where IDF soldiers have been operating since Oct. 6 to thwart a Hamas resurgence in the city.
