Tuesday, 6 January 2009
An IDF officer from the Paratroopers Brigade was killed overnight Monday during operations in the northern Gaza Strip, the army announced on Tuesday. He was identified as Capt. Yonatan Natanyel, 27, from Kedumim.
The IDF was looking into the circumstances of the death, and was reportedly investigating the possibility that the soldier may have been killed by an errant tank shell.
Should the possibility turn out to be true, the case would mark the second friendly-fire incident of the night. Hours earlier, during separate clashes in northern Gaza, three IDF soldiers were killed and two dozen wounded when a tank shell destroyed a house that they were using for cover.
All of the casualties in the earlier incident were members of the Golani Brigade, including Golani Infantry Brigade Commander Col. Avi Peled.
One of the fatalities was identified Tuesday morning as Yousef Moadi, 19, from Haifa. He will be laid to rest at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Druse village of Yirka. The other two were identified as Maj. Dagan Wartman, 32, from Ma'aleh Michmash, who served as the doctor for Golani 13th Battalion, and St.-Sgt. Nitai Stern, 21, from Jerusalem.
According to reports, a force from the battalion came under heavy mortar fire in Saja'iya and entered a nearby home for cover.
Mistaking the force for Hamas, an IDF tank fired at the home. A shell hit the building which collapsed on the force. Three soldiers were killed and of the 24 wounded, one was in critical condition and another three were in serious condition. The other 20 casualties, including Peled and battalion commander Lt.-Col. Oren Cohen, were lightly to moderately wounded.
The fighting lasted several hours as IDF artillery pounded the area and helicopters evacuated the wounded. The clashes marked the first time the IDF extended its ground operation into a densely populated area.
Throughout Monday, the IDF encountered significant resistance in the northern Gaza Strip, killing close to 100 Palestinians in a series of close-range gun battles. Another 80 were captured and sent for interrogation. One Palestinian was taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba under heavy security.
A senior IDF officer said on Tuesday that Hamas had stepped up its attacks against Israeli troops based in the periphery of towns and villages in northern Gaza.
"Hamas is trying to draw us inside the built up areas," he said. "We are trying to draw them out to the periphery."
Despite the fierce fighting, and with diplomatic activity beginning to gain steam, defense officials predicted Monday that Operation Cast Lead would be over by the end of the week.
"If everything goes as planned the operation could be over in the next 72 hours," a senior officer said.
Jerusalem Post staff and AP contributed to this report.
