Second IDF colonel killed in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday that Col. Ehsan Daksa, commander of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade, was killed in battle in the northern Gaza Strip.

A member of the country’s Druze minority, the 41-year-old from Daliyat al-Karmel is the highest-ranking officer killed during the Gaza operation, alongside Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, head of the Golani Brigade chief’s forward command team, who was killed in an ambush in Gaza City 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.

The commander of the 52nd Battalion was seriously wounded in the incident that killed Daksa. Two other officers were also wounded—one moderately and the other lightly.

A decorated veteran of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Daksa took command of the 401st in June.

He is the sixth IDF colonel to have been killed in combat against Hamas. Another Druze officer, Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, was killed in Gaza on Nov. 2.

Daksa’s death brings the total IDF death toll on all fronts since Oct. 7, 2023 to 749.

“The State of Israel lost a bold and courageous commander, a leader who dedicated his life and work to the security of our nation,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“Ehsan’s character, combined with his love for our homeland, his creativity and fearless sense of initiative, made him a role model and source of pride for his troops and commanders,” he added.

President Isaac Herzog also eulogized the fallen commander.

“Ehsan—a hero of Israel, a brave, modest and principled fighter—his death is a loss for the State of Israel and Israeli society as a whole. I salute him and embrace his family, the community of Daliyat al-Karmel, and our brothers and sisters from the Druze community who have lost many dear sons since the beginning of the fighting, with devotion, a sense of mission and shared destiny,” he said.

Rafik Halabi, mayor of Daliyat al-Karmel, said that the town was “draped in black” and “crying and mourning” for the loss of “a hero, brave, a warrior who became a legend, modest, who has been fighting since the start of the war.”