An Israeli soldier was killed during fighting in southern Gaza on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces announced, as troops pressed on with operations across the Strip.

The slain soldier was named as Sgt. Ori Ashkenazi Nechemya, 19, of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion, from Ashkelon.

According to an initial IDF probe, Nechemya was killed by anti-tank missile fire in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

His death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 336.

Earlier Thursday, the IDF said that some 50 terror operatives were killed by troops of the 162nd Division in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah over the past day.

The IDF said that in one incident in Tel Sultan, troops of the Nahal Brigade spotted a cell of gunmen heading to attack them, and called in a drone strike.

Further north, in Khan Younis and on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah, the military said an operation being carried out by the 98th Division continued, following intelligence of Hamas infrastructure and operatives in the area.

Troops with the 98th Division killed several gunmen and destroyed dozens of sites belonging to terror groups in the past day, according to the IDF.

Several more gunmen were killed in airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip, directed by reservists of the 252nd Division, who were operating in the Netzarim Corridor area.

Meanwhile, the IDF also announced on Thursday that it struck a Hamas weapons depot adjacent to the Salah ad-Din School in Gaza City.

On Wednesday, the military said it carried out an airstrike against a Hamas command room embedded within the Salah ad-Din School building. It said the weapons depot was in a separate building, located just outside the school compound, and it was hit in a separate strike on Wednesday night.

The IDF said the building was used to store rockets and other weapons intended to be used to attack Israel.

Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza following the terror group’s onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, during which it killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, 105 of whom are believed to still be held in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 40,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.