Sergeant Koren Bitan, a 19-year-old soldier from Rosh Ha'ayin who served in the Bislamach Brigade, fell in combat in the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF announced on Monday evening.
"Sergeant Koren Bitan, aged 19, from Rosh Ha'Ayin, a soldier in the 450th Battalion (squad commanders course), Bislamach Brigade, who served in the 94th "Duchifat" Battalion, Kfir Brigade, fell during combat in the southern Gaza Strip," the IDF stated.
On Monday morning, the IDF announced that troops are continuing operational activity throughout the Gaza Strip, eliminating terrorists in close-quarters encounters and in aerial strikes. The troops continue to dismantle terrorist infrastructure sites and locate weaponry and tunnel shafts.
In one strike, a terrorist cell that shot an anti-tank missile toward the troops was struck by the IAF.
The IDF also announced that following intelligence indications that the Hamas terrorist organization was attempting to regroup and rebuild its forces in the area of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, the IDF called on civilians in the area to evacuate for their own safety via designated humanitarian routes to the expanded Humanitarian Area in Al-Mawasi. The IDF's 162nd Division is currently conducting operations against Hamas terrorist targets in the area.
However, Hamas is actively preventing Gazan civilians from heeding the IDF’s calls to move away from the combat zone in Jabaliya. In one conversation between an IDF representative and a Gazan civilian during the evacuation, the Gazan civilian described how Hamas forces were hitting them with sticks in order to prevent them from evacuating from the area.
While the IDF makes every effort to move civilians away from the battlefield, Hamas continues to make every effort to keep civilians in the line of fire.