LOS ANGELES — Max Steinberg of Woodland Hills was one of two Americans among the 13 elite Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers killed in Gaza on Sunday morning, according to Israeli news sources and the local Jewish Journal. Jared Sichel of the Journal notes that Steinberg “attended Pierce College and El Camino Real High School, [and] was a sniper in Golani,” an elite infantry brigade. He was killed in the area of Shejaiya.
The relatively large death toll was deeply mourned in Israel, but showed no sign of breaking Israeli resolve to keep fighting. The IDF has uncovered a network of tunnels dug by the Hamas terrorist group, both underneath Gaza and extending into Israel itself, which is far more extensive than had been previously known. Hamas has tried to use those tunnels in recent days to carry out large-scale attacks on Israeli civilians behind IDF lines.
In a press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the loss of the soldiers and described their contribution to “the battle against terror, which is part of the historic campaign to harm us since the founding of the state.”
A small number of foreigners, including Americans and not limited to Jews, volunteer for the IDF every year, serving along with Israelis on the front lines against terror organizations and hostile Arab armies.
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