Senior Israeli officer killed, three others wounded in fighting

Lt. Col. Salman Habaka

By Emmanuel Fabian, JERUSALEM, Israel

The Israel Defense Forces announces the death of a senior officer during fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Lt. Col. Salman Habaka, 33, the commander of the 188th Armored Brigade’s 53rd Battalion, from Yanuh-Jat, was killed battling Hamas terrorists in the northern part of Gaza.

No further details are given on the circumstances of his death.

Habaka leaves behind a wife and a two-year-old child.

Separately, a reservist of the 679th Yiftah Brigade, a Givati soldier, and a Combat Engineering soldier, were seriously wounded in overnight operations in the northern part of Gaza.

Additionally, a soldier of the Border Defense Corps’ Caracal Battalion was seriously wounded in an incident on the Egyptian border. No further details are given on the circumstances.

Habaka is the most senior officer to have been killed during the IDF’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

His death brings the toll to 18 soldiers killed during the ground offensive, and 333 since the beginning of the war.

On the morning of Simchat Torah, October 7th, the day of Hamas' murderous surprise attack, Salman Habaka received a message about a major incident on the Gaza border.

Although his soldiers from the 188th Armoured Brigade's 53rd Battalion were in the Hebron area, he moved part of the force to Tze'elim in southern Israel.

The soldiers from the battalion supplied the forces in the field with machine guns, and six of their tanks joined the battles. The crews were distributed between Be'eri, Kfar Aza, and Nahal Oz. An additional force was sent to the Erez border crossing.

In Kibbutz Be'eri, there were fierce and bloody battles throughout the day. Habaka came to Be'eri with two tanks and joined a group of paratroopers.

Together with the rest of the forces, they pushed back the Hamas terrorists and decided the battle. 

The Bithonistim movement said that Habaka's decision to disperse the tanks proved to be a bold and smart decision since his crews pushed back another wave of terrorists that broke through the Erez crossing and killed the terrorists at the border.