Israeli army says contractor killed in Gaza ‘accident’

<p> JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said a contractor was killed in an “operational accident” in Gaza on Wednesday, the sixth Israeli death in the Palestinian territory since a ceasefire was reached with Hamas.<br /> “Earlier today, during IDF and security forces’ activity in the Gaza Strip, an employee working for a contractor company carrying out engineering projects on behalf of the Ministry of Defense was killed as a result of an operational accident,” the military said in a statement.<br /> The army told AFP it could not yet disclose his identity but said he was an Israeli citizen.<br /> The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and dragged on for two years.<br /> The ceasefire went into effect last October, though it has not completely quelled the violence, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce.<br /> Israel has killed at least 1,027 people since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.<br /> The Israeli military says it has lost five soldiers in Gaza over the same period.<br /> Under the stalled second phase of the US-backed ceasefire plan, Israel was to gradually pull out of the territory and Hamas was to hand over its weapons, neither of which has happened.<br /> Israel now says it controls at least 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, compared with just over half following its pullback on the first day of the truce.</p>