Major Gal Shabbat, 24, from Katzir, a company commander in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade (35), has succumbed to his injuries after being critically wounded on May 15, 2024, in a confrontation with terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF reported on Sunday.
Shabbat is survived by his parents, a brother, a sister and his fiancee Roni, with whom he was supposed to get married this summer. He will be laid to rest at 12 p.m. Monday in the military cemetery in Netanya.
On October 7, Maj. Shabbat fought alongside his company in the Gaza border region, eliminating terrorists who had infiltrated Sderot and Kibbutz Be'eri. He entered Gaza with the launch of ground operations and fought within the enclave for six months.
Nili Trabelsi, Shabbat's teacher at Gvanim School in the Menashe Regional Council, mourned him in a post. "My heart is shattered. I lost a beloved student, and all of Israel lost one of its most moral, purest sons," she wrote.
"A month ago, he came out of Gaza to say goodbye and give me a hug, but I wasn't there. I missed the chance to say goodbye, to tell him how proud I was, how much I appreciated and loved him."
Shabbat was critically wounded in a clash with terrorists, two hours before an incident in which five paratroopers were killed in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip: Capt. Roy Beit Yaakov, Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, Sgt. Daniel Chemu, Sgt. Ilan Cohen and Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah. Eight other soldiers were wounded, including three who were seriously injured.
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From top left clockwise: Staff Sgt. Gilad Arye Boim, Capt. Roy Beit Yaakov, Staff Sgt. Betzalel David Shashuah, Sgt. Ilan Cohen and Sgt. Daniel Chemu
The tragedy in Jabaliya occurred on a route secured by 202nd Battalion troops, initially by two tanks from the 82nd Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade, participating in the raid on the refugee camp in the northeast of the Gaza Strip. At noon, the command post of the deputy battalion commander of the 202nd Battalion entered the area, and by evening, a deputy company commander passed the point in a tank.
The deputy company commander's force entered a building, and around 7:00 PM, a force from one of the two tanks spotted a barrel protruding from a window and informed the adjacent tank. The tanks fired two shells at the location, unaware it was the "deputy battalion commander's house," the field headquarters of the deputy commander of the 202nd Battalion. The army has begun investigating the fatal mistake.
The IDF death toll since the outbreak of the war on October 7 has reached 631, 282 of whom have fallen fighting in the Gaza Strip.