Former IDF chief's nephew killed in battle in southern Gaza, just days after his son also died while fighting Hamas
- An Israeli war cabinet observer minister's nephew was killed during a raid on a mosque in Gaza.
- Earlier in the week, Gadi Eisenkot's son was also killed in the fighting.
The 19-year-old nephew of former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of the general staff and current war cabinet observer minister Gadi Eisenkot was killed in fighting around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday, the IDF said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Sgt. Maor Cohen Eisenkot was killed by an explosive during a raid inside a mosque while he was serving with the Golani Brigade's 12th Battalion, The Times of Israel reported. Staff Sgt. Jonathan Dean Jr Haim, 25, was also killed during the operation.
The mosque and tunnel infrastructure underneath it were destroyed by an Israeli Air Force fighter jet following the attack, the IDF said, per The Times of Israel.
On Thursday, Eisenkot's son, 25-year-old Master-Sgt. Gal Meir Eisenkot, also died after a bomb exploded in a tunnel shaft in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
At the funeral for his son on Friday, Gadi Eisenkot said they would "do everything so that we will be deserving to contribute to the right decisions for those who sacrificed for your comrades in arms and for the entire Israeli people," The Jerusalem Post reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and other politicians and IDF officials were among those who attended the funeral, per the report.
Gadi Eisenkot was Israel's chief of the general staff from 2015 to 2019. He is now a member of Netanyahu's emergency government, which was set up after Hamas' October 7 attacks.
425 Israeli soldiers have been killed so far during the conflict, government spokesman Eylon Levy said, Sky News reported.
More than 17,700 Palestinians have been killed so far, the Gaza Health Ministry has said, per The Associated Press.