The Israel Defense Forces said seven personnel—an officer and six soldiers—were killed on 25 June when an explosive device destroyed their armored vehicle during operations in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the blast, one of the deadliest single incidents for Israeli forces in the enclave in recent months. Four days later, on 29 June, the military announced that Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, a 20-year-old combat engineer from the 601st Battalion, was killed by an explosive device while his unit operated in Jabalia in northern Gaza. Army Radio said the two incidents raised June’s military death toll in Gaza to 20, and the IDF put total combat fatalities at 30 since fighting resumed in March and 429 since Israeli ground operations began in October 2023. The war, launched after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack that left about 1,200 people in Israel dead and 251 taken hostage, has caused widespread devastation. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 56,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s air and ground campaign, which has displaced most of the enclave’s population and triggered repeated, but so far unsuccessful, cease-fire efforts.