British Israeli soldier killed in Gaza Strip amid fighting

A British Israeli soldier has been killed while fighting in northern Gaza, according to reports in Israel.

He was a 20-year-old sergeant from 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."

The IDF soldier, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed by an explosive device on Sunday, the Times of Israel reported.

The paper said the soldier moved to Israel from London with his family 11 years ago.

Israel has been operating in Gaza since the Hamas resistance group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

More than 860 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war began, including more than 400 during the fighting in Gaza.

US-led ceasefire efforts have repeatedly stalled.

The Israeli offensive has devastated Gaza and killed more than 56,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, a branch of the Hamas government. The figures do not distinguish bewteen civilian and military casualties but are generally considered fairly accurate by international organizations.

The death toll is by far the highest in any round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.