A total of 24 Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, Israel’s highest single-day death toll in the war against Hamas, as Israel continued its biggest ground offensive so far in 2024.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 21 soldiers were killed in the explosion when two buildings they were mining to demolish collapsed after terrorists fired grenades at a nearby tank.
Earlier, the army said three soldiers were killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.
“Yesterday we experienced one of the most difficult days since the war broke out,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war would determine Israel’s future “for decades to come”.
“Falling fighters is a necessity to achieve the goals of war,” Gallant said.
An Israeli soldier reacts during mortar fire, as conflict continues between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, on the border with central Gaza, Israel January 22, 2024. REUTERS Israeli forces operate in the Gaza Strip on January 23. , 2024. via REUTERS
The deaths came as Israeli forces launched their biggest ground campaign of the new year, pushing deep into the western part of Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the Palestinian enclave, near an area sheltering hundreds of thousands of people fleeing other parts of the enclave.
Gazans say Israeli blockades and raids on hospitals since Monday have put the wounded and dead out of reach for rescuers as fighting escalates in the crowded city.
The dead were buried inside the Nasser Khan Younis main hospital because it was not safe to go to the cemetery.
Palestinian families are seen fleeing the city on the coastal road towards Rafah on January 22, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
Another Khan Younis hospital, Al-Khair, was attacked by Israeli forces who captured staff there, and a third, Al-Amal, where Red Crescent rescues are based, was cut off and could not be contacted, according to Palestinian officials.
Israel says Hamas terrorists operate in and around hospitals, making them legitimate targets. Hospital staff and Hamas denied this.
Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza and vows Israel’s destruction, whose members stormed across the fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 hostages on Oct. 7.
Protesters hold portraits during a rally organized by families and supporters of Israeli hostages on January 22, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
At least 25,295 Gazans have been confirmed killed, according to Palestinian authorities, with thousands more feared missing in the rubble, in the Israeli campaign, which has laid waste to large parts of the area.
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, most of them now confined to small towns north and south of Khan Younis, many sleeping rough in makeshift tents with running out of food and medicine and no clean water.
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The massive Israeli military death toll in the fighting comes at a time when Israel itself is beginning to see the first stirrings of discontent with Netanyahu’s war strategy — committed to the total elimination of Hamas but with only vague discussions about what will happen next for Gaza.
Since last week, Netanyahu has vowed not to let the Palestinians have an independent state, breaking with Israel’s main ally Washington, which sees the peace process eventually leading to a Palestinian state as the cornerstone of its Middle East policy for decades.
Relatives of hostages still being held in Gaza have called for more efforts to bring them home, even if that means curbing the military campaign.
A group of them stormed into a parliamentary committee hearing on Monday.
Last week, a member of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, whose own son was killed in a ground attack in Gaza, said the campaign had not yet achieved its goal of destroying Hamas and was hopeless. release hostages in military operations.
He called for quick elections to replace the government which he said had lost public confidence.
The conflict has been accompanied by increased violence elsewhere in the Middle East, particularly where armed groups allied with Israel’s arch-enemy Iran operate, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
An Israeli soldier stands in a room containing a sink in a tunnel under Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Reuters
The Iran-allied Houthi movement, which controls large parts of populated areas in Yemen, has attacked shipping in the Red Sea in what it says is support for Gaza.
The United States and Britain, which have attacked the Houthis this month, carried out another round of airstrikes overnight.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/