The Israeli army acknowledged the killing of one of its high-ranking officers during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood launched by the Palestinian resistance since last Saturday. He is the third colonel that Israel has lost in the battle.

According to the updated lists of those killed in the Israeli army, Colonel (res.) Leon Bar (53 years old), a senior officer in the West Bank Division, was killed during combat operations in the Gaza envelope.

The confession comes days after his killing on October 8, the second day of the Al-Aqsa Flood.

The total number of Israeli deaths exceeded 1,300, including 258 officers and soldiers, according to the latest Israeli army data.

Bar is the third colonel to be lost by the Israeli army in this battle, which witnessed the killing of dozens of officers and members of the army and police.

Colonel Yonatan Steinberg (42 years old), commander of the Nahal Brigade (one of the five infantry brigades in the Israeli army), was killed at the beginning of the battle during clashes with fighters from the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), near the Israeli Kerem Shalom site in the southeast of the Gaza Strip.

Steinberg was on his way to the site run by his subordinates, but one of the resistance fighters managed to kill him during a clash.

Colonel Roy Youssef Levy (44 years old), commander of the Multi-Dimensional Unit (Ghost Unit), was also killed in clashes with Al-Qassam fighters in the Ra'im settlement.

Source: Al Jazeera + Israeli press