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The Israel Defense Forces announced that Master Sergeant (res.) Asaf Kafri, 26, from Beit Hashmonai, was killed Thursday in combat in northern Gaza. Kafri served as a tank driver in the 79th Battalion of the 14th Armored Brigade.
Three other soldiers were wounded in the same incident, including two seriously: an officer from the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit and a reservist from the 79th Battalion. “The wounded were evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment and their families were notified,” the IDF spokesperson said.
Since the start of the war, 849 Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat.
The incident took place Thursday at 1:45 p.m., when a terrorist cell from Beit Hanoun fired an anti-tank missile and sniper rounds at an IDF unit near Outpost 39, close to Outpost 40, where Warrant Officer G'haleb Sliman Alnasasra was killed last Saturday.
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The reservist tank crewman was fatally hit by sniper fire, and three fellow soldiers were wounded — two seriously and one moderately. The unit had been conducting an operational mission adjacent to the outpost when it came under fire from multiple directions. The attackers have not yet been located.
Following the incident, the IDF struck targets in the area in an effort to isolate the combat zone and prepared to target Hamas positions belonging to the Beit Hanoun Battalion. This battalion was a focal point of the IDF’s recent raid on Jabaliya prior to the latest ceasefire.