Israeli intelligence officer dies of wounds from car attack, military says

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) – An Israeli intelligence officer died Thursday of wounds sustained in a car-ramming attack in central Israel earlier this month, the army said.

A military statement said Ariel Topaz, 24, an officer with the Intelligence Directorate's Research Division, was seriously wounded along with three others in a car attack near Ramla city north of Jerusalem on July 14.

A Palestinian driver was also killed in the incident.

According to Israeli military figures, at least 684 soldiers have been killed and 4,213 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, 2023.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 39,100 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,200 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar