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Former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s son killed in Gaza

Gadi Eisenkot joined Israel's war cabinet with his National Camp party leader Benny Gantz, another former IDF chief, after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot (L) give a press conference in Tel Aviv, on December 4, 2018.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot (L) give a press conference in Tel Aviv on Dec. 4, 2018. — Jack GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images

The son of war cabinet minister and former Israeli military chief Gadi Eisenkot was killed fighting in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. The death of Gal Eisenkot, 25, and another soldier, Jonathan David Deutch, 34, brings the death toll for Israeli soldiers in Gaza to 89.

Eisenkot was killed in a booby-trapped tunnel in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. He was taken to a hospital in serious condition, the Times of Israel reported, where he died of his injuries. 

Eisenkot is a current minister in the emergency government formed after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel as part of the National Camp party led by Benny Gantz, another former chief of the Israeli military. Eisenkot also holds an observer role in the war cabinet, responsible for overseeing decision-making in Gaza. 

As part of the unity agreement signed on Oct. 11, the war cabinet will last for the duration of the war, during which no legislation or non-Gaza resolutions will be advanced in the Israeli Knesset. 

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