Israel has lost 800 security personnel since start of Gaza war

Rising death toll highlights difficulty of fighting in densely populated areas

Most of Gaza's buildings have been destroyed during the war and the strip is facing a number of humanitarian crises. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Israel’s military announced on Wednesday the death of soldier Roi Sasson, 21, who was killed during fighting in northern Gaza, marking the 800th death among Israeli security personnel since the Hamas-led attacks that started the Gaza war on October 7 last year.

Sasson, who was killed in an ambush, was a member of the Kfir Brigade, Israel’s largest infantry unit. His battalion commander was seriously injured in the same attack.

Deaths among Israeli security personnel in the Gaza war recently surpassed the number of its soldiers killed in the 1967 Middle East War, which was previously the fifth-deadliest for the country's forces, according to a tally by the Jewish Virtual Library.

Mourners at a military funeral in Israel this week. AFP

Israel’s military says 304 troops were among the nearly 2,000 people killed during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Another 251 people, including some soldiers, were taken back to Gaza as hostages, of whom more than 100 remain in captivity. A total of 377 troops have been killed since Israel launched its ground incursion into Gaza at the end of that month.

The Israeli invasion and bombing campaign has killed more than 43,900 people in Gaza and injured more than 104,000, most of them civilians, Palestinian health officials said.

Although the casualty rate among Israeli soldiers is a great deal lower now than at the beginning of the war, the rising death toll still highlights the extreme complexity of fighting in a densely populated area such as Gaza, where Hamas has built a sophisticated network of tunnels. The military has repeatedly re-entered areas it previously declared clear of enemy activity, prompting accusations from many Israelis that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no coherent war strategy.

Other Israeli security personnel have been killed in the occupied West Bank, where raids on suspected militant groups were stepped up alongside the war in Gaza. At least 45 soldiers have been killed in south Lebanon since Israel sent troops over the border last month after nearly a year of exchanges of fire with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Other personnel, such as police, have been killed in rocket attacks, operations in the West Bank and attacks within Israel carried out by Palestinian militants.

The country's deadliest conflict was the first Arab-Israeli War, fought from 1947 to 1949, during which the state of Israel was established. More than 6,000 security personnel were killed. The 1973 Arab-Israeli War killed almost 2,700, while the period of fighting with Palestinians and Arab neighbours between 1968 and 1970 killed more than 1,400. The First Lebanon War that began in 1982 killed more than 1,200.