The IDF announced Thursday that Staff Sgt. Ron Epshtein, 19, of Nesher, serving in the Givati Brigade's Tzabar Battalion, was killed by an artillery shell in Jabaliya. It remains unclear whether the shell was fired by Hamas or resulted from IDF fire.
Epshtein is the 29th IDF soldier to die since the raid in northern Gaza began last month. A graduate of Haifa's Hebrew Reali School, he is the 14th soldier from the school to fall in the war.
Yossi Ben David, director of the Reali School, confirmed Epshtein’s death and noted his family’s deep ties to the institution. His younger sister Maya is currently a 12th-grade student, and his older siblings, Daniel and Dina, are also alumni.
The municipality paid tribute to its native son. "The city of Nesher bows its head upon receiving the news of the death of Sergeant Ron Epshtein, a native of the city, a soldier in the Tzabar Battalion (432) from the Givati Brigade, who fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip. In this unbearably difficult time, we want to hug the Epshtein family, parents Dimitri and Olga and his siblings Daniel, Dina and Maya. May God grant that you will know no more sorrow. May his memory be blessed and engraved forever in our hearts."
On Wednesday the IDF announced that Sergeant First Class (res.) Roi Sasson, 21, from Mevaseret Zion, a soldier in the Nachshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade, fell Tuesday in an encounter with terrorists in Jabaliya. In the same incident, the commander of the Nachshon Battalion, Kfir Brigade, Lt. Col. Yoel Glickman, was seriously injured, though his life was not in danger.
A preliminary investigation of the encounter reveals that the force under Glickman's command was ambushed by a terrorist squad that was waiting inside a building, and came at the end of the battalion's attack on a target in the seam between Beit Lahia and Jabaliya.
On Sunday, the Nachshon Battalion had two more soldiers who fell in battle in Jabaliya, who fell in battle in Jabaliya, Captain Yogev Pazy and Staff Sergeant Noam Eitan. A day before, Sergeant First Class (res.) Idan Kenan Cohen from the battalion also fell in battle.
The raid on Jabaliya began about a month and a half ago, although the IDF had already raided the city twice before in the past year - first during an operation in December, and in May and June of this year. Among the 29 dead are also quite a few officers, including the commander of the Israel Defense Force's 401st Armored Brigade, Col. Ehsan Daqsa.
In this raid, the forces are scanning Hamas headquarters, mainly in the city's refugee camp, and are also putting pressure on the two neighboring towns, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, in order to move the remaining population south toward Gaza City, and then to continue even further south, beyond the Netzarim Corridor and the southern Gaza Strip.
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IDF forces are discovering weapons caches daily and engaging with terrorists regularly. The primary threat remains IEDs: Hamas has rigged more than 200 buildings in Jabaliya, primarily with "dumb" explosives using improvised tripwires but without surveillance cameras.
IDF soldiers clash with Hamas terrorists in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The IDF estimates this operation will be more prolonged than previous ones, potentially lasting several more weeks. Three IDF brigades under the 162nd Division are participating in the raid. The IDF has identified Jabaliya as a core Hamas stronghold in northern Gaza, where hundreds of terrorists — including senior commanders — have converged.
Despite the IDF managing to evacuate tens of thousands of residents from the city over the past month, breaking what the IDF describes as a "fear barrier" imposed by Hamas, a few thousand civilians remain.