The son of Israel's war cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist National Unity Party, said Thursday.
Party members Eizenkot and Gantz, also a former army chief, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which was followed by an unprecedented Israeli air, ground and sea offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said Master Sgt. Gal Meir Eizenkot, 25, died in a battle in northern Gaza. Another soldier was killed in a firefight in the southern Gaza Strip, the statement added. Two other soldiers were seriously injured in the fighting.
The army said 416 soldiers have been killed since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7.
Eizenkot's father served as military chief of staff from 2015 to 2019.
He recently entered politics as a member of the National Unity Party. He joined the newly formed war cabinet as an observer on Oct. 12.
Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 1 after a week-long humanitarian pause with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas ended.
At least 17,177 Palestinians have been killed and over 46,000 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7.
Around 1.9 million people, 85% of the population, have been displaced so far.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.
