[IsraelTimes] Hamas fires RPG at Egoz unit encampment near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing Sgt. First Class Alon Kudriashov, wounding additional troops, including 6 seriouslyThe Israel Defense Forces announced on Friday the death of a soldier killed during fighting against the Hamas terror group in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip earlier in the day. He was named as Sgt. First Class Alon Kudriashov, 21, of the Commando Brigade’s Egoz unit, from Modiin.
His death brought the number of troops killed in Israel’s ground offensive against Hamas to 254.
Kudriashov was killed and 16 other troops of the Egoz unit were wounded, including six seriously, after a Hamas operative fired an RPG at a building used as an encampment near Nasser Hospital, according to an IDF probe. Hamas published footage of the Friday morning incident, showing it launching an RPG at the building where the Egoz troops were operating.
All of the wounded troops were taken to hospitals.
Egoz troops had killed a Hamas gunman near their encampment a few hours before the RPG fire, according to the IDF.
Meanwhile, troops of the Nahal Brigade operating in the central Gaza Strip located and destroyed several rocket launchers that were aimed at Israel, the IDF said earlier Friday. Since Thursday, Nahal soldiers have also killed numerous gunmen, including by calling in airstrikes, the military added.
Separately, the Israeli Air Force struck what the IDF said was a building used by Hamas for terror activities in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.
Fighting against Hamas also continued at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, as well as in southern Gaza’s al-Qarara and the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis, where the IDF said troops have killed Hamas operatives, seized weapons and destroyed sites belonging to the terror group.
Amid the operations, the IAF struck dozens of sites, largely in support of the maneuvering ground troops, the military added.
Talks for a temporary truce and the release of hostages appeared to advance earlier in the week, but fell apart after Hamas rejected a compromise, saying it would only agree to a permanent end to the war and complete withdrawal of troops from Gaza. Efforts to renew the talks were undertaken on Friday.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said at least 32,623 people have been killed and 75,092 have been injured in Gaza since October 7.
| Yes, but we know Hamas outright lies when they are not exaggerating. The only thing we know to be true is that there are more dead and wounded today than yesterday, and less of both than tomorrow — at least until Hamas and its supportive population are completely defeated. |
The ongoing war has also created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as famine is both a risk and "quite possibly" present in at least some areas in northern Gaza, a senior US State Department official told Reuters on Friday.
| War is hell. But the Gazans had complete control of when it started, and equally complete control over when in ends. Until then Israel will continue to give them the drubbing they demand. |
"While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and center but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas, which accounts for the urgency with which we need to move goods, food at scale into the north," the senior State Department official, speaking with Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said.
The number of trucks distributing aid in south and central Gaza has nearly topped 200 a day, an increase compared to a month ago, but more are needed, the State Department official said.
"You need to address the full nutrition needs of the population of Gaza of all ages. That means more than just that minimal survival level feeding," the official said, adding that malnutrition, infant newborn and young child mortality are significant problems that are growing.
"I mean, after our heroic fighters feast, the rest get the scraps"
"It has to be addressed by additional assistance coming and the right kind of assistance coming in," he said.
As part of the efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the northern part of the Strip, nine trucks operated by the United Nations’ World Food Programme reached the area Thursday night, according to the Coordinator of Government Affairs in the Territories, the Defense Ministry body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories. In total, COGAT said 47 trucks have reached northern Gaza via a new land route opened by the IDF earlier in March.
Additionally, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the country will continue looking for new ways to facilitate the entry of increased aid into Gaza after the International Court of Justice ordered it to increase the provision of basic humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip.
"Israel will continue to promote new initiatives, and to expand existing ones, in order to enable and facilitate the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip in a continuous and extensive manner, by land, air and sea, together with UN bodies and other partners in the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Hayat said in a statement posted on X.
"This includes ongoing efforts to increase the scale, and means of access for such aid despite the operational challenges on the ground and Hamas׳s active and abhorrent efforts to commandeer, hoard, and steal aid."