Israel Defense Forces 1st Sgt. Ron Epshtein, 19, was killed in an IED blast in the northern Gaza Strip, the army confirmed Thursday night.
The slain soldier, from Nesher near Haifa, was a member of the Tzabar Battalion of the Givati Brigade, according to the military statement.
Epshtein’s death brought the number of Israeli soldiers killed in action in the Gaza Strip since the start of IDF ground operations against the Hamas terrorist organization there on Oct. 27, 2023, to 378.
On Thursday morning, the IDF identified the soldier killed in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday alongside a civilian researcher as Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, from Nir Banim.
He was killed alongside Maj. (res.) Ze’ev Erlich, 71, a renowned scholar and archaeological expert. According to Israel’s Kan News broadcaster, Erlich had entered Lebanon as a civilian alongside IDF soldiers.
The death toll among troops on all fronts since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre now stands at 804, according to official figures.
Additionally, Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Israel 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 there in May.
