The son of Israel’s former high army commander, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, was amongst at the very least two troopers killed in combating Thursday within the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army stated.
Grasp Sgt. Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, a reserve soldier in a commando unit, was killed in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, the army stated. Normal Eisenkot, who served as chief of workers of the Israeli Military from 2015 to 2019, is now a authorities minister and a nonvoting member of the emergency warfare cupboard that’s directing the combating.
The warfare cupboard, fashioned on Oct. 11, is made up of three main members — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Yoav Gallant, the protection minister; and Benny Gantz, one other former chief of workers and centrist politician — and two members who take part within the conferences as observers: Mr. Eisenkot and Ron Dermer, an in depth Netanyahu aide who was beforehand Israel’s ambassador to the US.
Practically 100 Israeli troopers have been killed within the Palestinian enclave during the last two months, because the Hamas-led assaults in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Greater than 300 troopers have been killed that day, Israeli officers have stated, and several other have been taken to Gaza as captives.
Normal Eisenkot was visiting a warfare room in southern Israel on Thursday when he was knowledgeable that his son had been critically wounded, in accordance with reviews by Israeli information media. Israel’s army introduced his son’s loss of life on Thursday night.
Mr. Netanyahu supplied condolences on behalf of himself and his spouse, Sara, to the household, calling Sergeant Eisenkot “a courageous warrior and a real hero.”
“We weep with you,” Mr. Netanyahu stated in a press release. “We embrace you.”
Mr. Netanyahu and his spouse additionally supplied their condolences to the households of all of the nation’s fallen troopers on Thursday night, the primary night time of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish competition of lights.
The loss of life of a soldier can contact many in Israel, the place most 18-year-olds are drafted for obligatory service and most households have, or know, troopers serving within the reserves. It was not instantly clear whether or not the loss of life of Sergeant Eisenkot would possibly have an effect on the work of the warfare cupboard.
After 4 a long time within the military, Normal Eisenkot went into politics final yr and joined Mr. Gantz’s centrist Blue and White occasion, which is now a part of the Nationwide Unity alliance. The alliance sat in political opposition after the elections of November 2022, which returned Mr. Netanyahu to energy, main probably the most polarizing, far-right and religiously conservative coalition authorities in Israel’s historical past.
Public belief within the authorities, which had been urgent an unpopular and divisive judicial overhaul plan, plummeted over the intelligence and coverage failures main as much as the Oct. 7 assault, and few of Mr. Netanyahu’s many ministers had the data or expertise to supervise a warfare.
Mr. Gantz and his alliance agreed to hitch the federal government all through the warfare, on the situation that Mr. Netanyahu fashioned a warfare cupboard that would make selections in a smaller and extra skilled discussion board than the unwieldy and fractious safety cupboard.
Tamir Hayman, a former head of the army intelligence directorate, wrote on social media that Normal Eisenkot informed him at first of the battle that he was “going to handle the warfare as if his son is on the frontline and as if his daughter is a hostage in Gaza.”
Mr. Hayman stated Normal Eisenkot then added, “in his direct and critical fashion, ‘My daughter is just not a hostage, however my son is on the frontline.’”
