British-Israeli soldier, 20, 'killed by an explosive' while fighting in Gaza

A young British-Israeli soldier has been killed in Gaza, according to media reports in Israel. Sergeant Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, aged 20, who served in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, reportedly died in an explosion when a device was detonated on Sunday.

According to the Times of Israel, Yisrael and his family moved to Israel 11 years ago and he lived in the city of Ra'anana.The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it is "looking into reports that an IDF soldier who died in combat in Gaza is a British national". Yisrael is the 20th IDF soldier to be killed since the start of June in the ongoing conflict in Gaza which was sparked by the October 7th terror attack by Hamas in 2023 which saw more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, murdered.

It's understood Yisrael died during operations in the north of Gaza in the Kafr Jabalia area. The young soldier losing his life comes just a day after sick chants of "death, death to the IDF" were sung by a musician Bob Vylan and a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival on Saturday.

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said Bob Vylan's chants "very much crossed a line". "We are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence," she said in a statement.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the scenes "grotesque". "Glorifying violence against Jews isn't edgy. The West is playing with fire if we allow this sort of behaviour to go unchecked," she wrote on X.

Responding to the chants from Bob Vylan, the Prime Minister said: "There is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech."

In a statement posted to Instagram, Vylan said: "Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.

"As we grow older and our fire starts to possibly dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us. Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change.

"Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered."

The Times of Israel reported that the death toll of IDF forces in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and operations along the border with the territory has reached 441 since the war began.

On Friday the IDF said it carried out a coordinated operation with the Israel Security Agency (ISA) to target alleged Hamas mastermind Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa in the area of Sabra in Gaza City.

In a statement, the IDF said Al-Issa "was a senior figure in Hamas’ military wing" and "was considered one of the founders of the terrorist organisation".

The military said his current role was Head of Combat Support Headquarters in Hamas’ military wing. It added that the suspected terror chief played a "significant role" in the "planning and execution" of the October 7 terror atrocity.