By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) — The Israeli army announced Saturday that another officer within its ranks was killed in clashes in the northern Gaza Strip, bringing its death toll since Oct. 7 to 577.
"Officer Eyal Shominov, 24, from the Karmiel area, a company commander in the Shaked Battalion (424), Givati Brigade, was killed in the battle in northern Gaza Strip," the army said in a statement.
It did not disclose additional details on the fighting that led to Shominov's death.
According to data on the Israeli army's website, 577 of its officers and soldiers have been killed since Gaza-based group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Oct. 7. Of the total, 238 have died in ground clashes that began in Gaza on Oct. 27.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,600 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala