JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza fighting and a foreign worker died from injuries suffered in a mortar attack from Gaza on a hothouse in Ashkelon.
Lt. Nathan Cohen, 23, of Modiin, was killed “in combat” and Capt. Dmitri Levitas, 26, of Jerusalem, was killed by sniper fire, both on Tuesday night, the Israeli army said in a statement.
Their deaths bring the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the July 8 launch of Operation Protective Edge to 29. Another soldier declared missing is widely presumed to be dead.
On Wednesday, the migrant worker from Thailand killed in Ashkelon became the third civilian killed by Gaza rockets since the start of Israel’s operation to halt a bombing barrage from the coastal strip. He died after being flown by helicopter to Barzilai Medical Center in that southern Israeli city.
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