Major Gal Shabbat z"l
Major Gal Shabbat z"lIDF spokesperson

The IDF has cleared for publication that Major Gal Shabbat, 24, a company commander in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade, from Katzir, succumbed to his wounds after he was severely wounded on May 15th in a confrontation with terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip.

It was reported this morning that two soldiers of the Givati patrol, First sergeant Nachman Meir Haim Vaknin, 20 years old from Eilat, and Sergeant Noam Bittan, 20 years old from Moshav Yad Rambam - were killed by an explosive device in a pit, east of Rafah. In the same incident, an officer and two soldiers from the Givati patrol were also seriously injured and a reservist from the 5832th bridging battalion of the Engineering Corps was seriously injured by an anti-tank missile fired at a D9.

Last week, five IDF soldiers were killed: Captain Roy Beit Yaakov, 22, from Eli; Sergeant Daniel Chemu, 20, from Tiberias; Sergeant Ilan Cohen (a lone soldier who immigrated from Argentina) 20, from Karmiel and Staff Sergeant Betzlel David Shashuah, 21, from Tel Aviv.

On Friday, Sergeant Ben Avishy, 20, from Nahariya, a soldier in the telecommunications company of the paratrooper brigade, was killed. Since the beginning of the war, 630 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 282 who fell from the beginning of the military operation in the Gaza Strip.