Senior commander, Indian-origin youth among 19 Israeli soldiers killed during Gaza ground invasion

News Network

November 3, 2023

Israeli tanks and troops have met fierce resistance from Hamas fighters using mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels to fight off Tel Aviv's ground invasion of Gaza City after nearly four weeks of bombardments.

Fighters of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad were emerging from tunnels to fire at tanks, then disappearing back into the network, residents said and videos from both groups showed Thursday, in guerrilla-style operations against Israeli troops.

"They never stopped bombing Gaza City all night, the house never stopped shaking," Reuters quoted an unnamed man living there. "But in the morning we discover the Israeli forces are still outside the city, in the outskirts and that means the resistance is heavier than they expected."

Military commanders said Israeli troops were "at the gates of Gaza City". Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff of the Israeli military, said Israeli troops were fighting in a dense and complex urban area, that required professional combat.

“This is certainly terrain that is more heavily sown than in the past with minefields and booby-traps. Hamas has learned and prepared itself well,” said Brigadier General Iddo Mizrahi, chief of Israel's military engineers.

The Israeli army said Palestinian fighters killed a commander of an armored brigade's battalion in Gaza. Lt Col Salman Habaka is among the 19 soldiers killed in Gaza in two days of heavy fighting.

He is the most senior Israeli soldier to be killed since the ground invasion escalated on Tuesday.

An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in an "incident" on the Egyptian border, Israeli media said, citing the army.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said two drones attacked an Israeli military position in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms on Thursday.

In a brief communique, the group said the two drones used "a large amount of explosives" and hit their targets with "high accuracy".

Earlier on Thursday, sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in northern Israel.

Hamas rockets launched from Lebanon wounded at least two people and caused damage in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.

Footage shared on Israel's Channel 13 showed cars and shops on fire as a result of the rocket.

Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that its armed wing in Lebanon had launched 12 rockets into the city.

Israel’s military authorities have stressed the difficulties of urban warfare. Their strategy for now seems to be concentrating large forces in the northern Gaza Strip rather than launching a ground invasion on the entire territory.

Indian-origin Israeli soldier killed

Among the Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, a 20-year-old soldier identified by the Israeli military is believed to be of Indian-origin.

Staff-Sgt. Halel Solomon, who hailed from the southern Israeli Dimona town, was killed when a Namer armoured personnel carrier he was in was hit by an anti-tank guided missile fired by Hamas on Wednesday (Nov 1), the IDF said, according to Times of Israel newspaper.

At least 11 soldiers from the Givati Infantry Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion were killed in that incident.

Dimona's Mayor Benny Bitton expressed condolences to Solomon’s family in his Facebook post.

“It is with great sorrow and grief that we announce the death of a son of Dimona, Halel Solomon, in the battle in Gaza,” Dimona's Mayor, Benny Bitton said in a Facebook post.

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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