Indian-origin soldier killed near Gaza

A 27-year-old Indian-origin soldier in the Israeli Army died on Saturday night after he was hit by a mortar shell near the Gaza Strip border while Israel was holding fire under a humanitarian ceasefire at the request of the U.N.

Sergeant First Class Barak Refael Degorker from the town of Gan Yavne was severely injured and later succumbed to his wounds, the Israeli Army said on Sunday. Degorker, an Engineering Corps reservist, was with a group of other soldiers in an assembly zone near a kibbutz in the Sdot Negev Regional Council at the time of the incident. He belonged to the Bene-Israel community, which has its origin in the Mumbai region.