Twenty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip, the highest single-day death toll for Israelis in the war with Hamas, the military says, as Israel launches its largest ground offensive yet in 2024. announced on Tuesday.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said 21 soldiers were killed in an explosion that collapsed two buildings they had mined for destruction after terrorists fired a grenade at a nearby tank.
Earlier, the military announced that three soldiers were killed in separate attacks in southern Gaza.
“Yesterday, we experienced one of the most difficult days since the outbreak of war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “In the name of a hero, I will risk my life and never stop fighting until I achieve absolute victory.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war would determine Israel's future “for decades to come.”
“Fighter jet crashes are a prerequisite to achieving war objectives,” Gallant said.
The death toll comes as Israeli forces launch their biggest ground operation of the new year, pushing deep west of Khan Yunis, the main city in the southern Palestinian enclave, near an area where hundreds of thousands of people displaced from other parts of Palestine have taken refuge. It happened while I was there. enclave.
Gaza residents say an Israeli blockade and hospital raids since Monday have intensified fighting in the crowded city, leaving wounded and dead beyond the reach of rescue workers.
The dead were buried in the grounds of the main Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, as it was dangerous to go outside to go to the cemetery.
Palestinian officials say another hospital, al-Khail, Khan Yunis, has been attacked by Israeli forces and its staff arrested, and a third hospital, al-Amal, where Red Crescent rescue teams are based, has been cut off and communications have been cut off. It became impossible.
Israel maintains that Hamas terrorists operate in and around the hospital, making them legitimate targets. Hospital officials and Hamas deny this.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that controls Gaza and has vowed to destroy Israel. Hamas members crossed the fence into Israel and killed 1,200 people and abducted about 250 hostages on October 7.
At least 25,295 Gazans have since been confirmed dead, and thousands more are feared lost in the rubble, according to the Palestinian Authority, which has left much of the enclave in ruins. It was an Israeli operation.
Almost all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been left homeless, with the majority now trapped in small towns north and south of Khan Yunis, with many forced to live in temporary shelters as food and medicine run out and there is no clean water. Sleeping poorly in a tent.
The heavy death toll of Israeli forces in the fighting reflects Israel's own dissatisfaction with Netanyahu's war strategy, which is committed to the complete annihilation of Hamas but has only vaguely discussed what happens next in Gaza. This is happening at a time when we are beginning to see the first uptick in
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed since last week to never allow the Palestinians to have an independent state, and is a key figure in Israel, which has seen a peace process that ultimately leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state as the backbone of its Middle East policy for decades. He broke with his ally Washington.
Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza are calling for more efforts to bring them home, even if it means curtailing military operations.
A group of them stormed a Congressional committee hearing on Monday.
Last week, Gadi Eisenkot, a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu's war cabinet and a former military chief whose son, a soldier, was killed in a ground attack in Gaza, said the operation still had not achieved its goal of dismantling Hamas. He said there was no hope. Freeing hostages in a military operation.
He called for swift elections to replace a government he said had lost the public's trust.
The conflict has been accompanied by escalating violence in other parts of the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, where armed groups allied with Israel's arch-enemy Iran are active.
The Iranian-aligned Houthis, who control most of Yemen's populated areas, attacked ships in the Red Sea in what they called aid to Gaza.
The US and UK are attacking the Houthis this month. different air Attack all night long.
