By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army announced Sunday that an officer within its ranks who was previously classified as a hostage was killed in action on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The kidnapped IDF officer Daniel Peretz, 22, from Yad Binyamin, was killed in the fighting on October 7 and his body has been held in the Gaza Strip ever since,” the army said in a statement.
“Peretz served as commander of a unit in Battalion 77,” it added.
The Palestinian group Hamas has not issued any comments so far on the army's statement.
The number of fatalities in the ranks of the Israeli army since Oct. 7 last year has risen to 592 officers and soldiers, including 249 since the start of a ground operation on Oct. 27.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 which killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than 31,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in the enclave, and nearly 73,700 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands 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.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala