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Introduction – Feb 28, 2024

Despite Israeli claims to the contrary there is every indication that Hamas is far from defeated. The Israel Defense Force continues to announce casualties but there is a curious feature about these announcements. Although IDF officers and senior NCOs are listed there is rarely any mention of casualties among the lower ranks.

Privates and Lance-Corporals are hardly ever listed, which is strange as in any combat unit they would make up the majority of the combatants.

So why aren’t they being listed? Is the IDF trying to conceal the full extent of its losses by not listing casualties among lower ranks?

Significantly, these most recent IDF losses took place in northern Gaza, which the Israelis claimed they were close to securing ‘full operational control’ of in late December. Yet here we are two months later and the IDF are still taking casualties there.

Note also that one of the IDF officers killed in action had been brought in recently to replace another company commander who had been seriously wounded. In other words the IDF is engaged in a bitter war of attrition with no end in sight. Ed.

Two IDF soldiers killed in Gaza; foreign nations airdrop civilian aid into enclave

Emanuel Fabian – Times of Israel Feb 28, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday that two soldiers had been killed in battles against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States continued to strive for a path to a temporary ceasefire and hostage release amid the bitter fighting, with negotiators seeking a six-week pause in the nearly five-month war.

And as a round of negotiations was held in Qatar, families of hostages abducted during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel begin a march from the Gaza area toward Jerusalem to demand the government agree to a deal for their release.

The IDF announced two officers had been killed fighting Tuesday in northern Gaza, raising the ground toll in the offensive against Hamas to 242.

They were named as Maj. Iftah Shahar, 25, a company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion, from Paran, and Cpt. Itai Seif, 24, a platoon commander also in the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion, from Yeruham.

Shahar had until recently served as an officer in the Israeli Air Force’s elite Shaldag unit. He had been sent to the infantry unit to replace a seriously wounded Givati company commander.

The IDF said another seven soldiers of the Tzabar Battalion were seriously wounded in the same incident.

Shahar and Seif were killed and the seven other soldiers were injured as a result of an explosion in a booby-trapped building in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood on Tuesday.

As global concerns mount over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where over 2 million people reside, the IDF said it coordinated the airdrop of food and medical supplies by several nations to the southern Gaza Strip over the previous two days.

Some 160 packages of humanitarian aid were airdropped to 17 locations along the southern coastline of the Strip using American, Egyptian, Emirati, French and Jordanian planes, the IDF said.

Additional packages of food, medical supplies and fuel were also airdropped to a Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis, the IDF said.

The Jordan News Agency reported that King Abdullah II, who is Supreme Commander of the Jordanian military, participated in an airdrop Tuesday. According to the report, six C130 aircraft flew in from Amman, three of which were from the Royal Jordanian Air Force alongside three others from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and France.

Continues …

Hamas Launches ‘3 Times More Attacks’ On IDF In North Gaza Than South While Netanyahu Eyes Rafah

Hindustan Times – Feb 28, 2024