24 Israeli soldiers are killed in IDF’s single deadliest day in Gaza
‘Leads to a harder process’
ISRAELIS were in mourning last night following the deaths of 24 soldiers on the bloodiest day of the war so far for the country’s military.
Some 21 reservists from the Israeli Defence Forces were crushed to death on Monday after the building they were about to demolish was fired at by Hamas.
The blast from the anti-tank missile triggered explosives laid by the troops, causing two buildings to collapse on top of them in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Another three soldiers were killed earlier the same day in a separate incident, according to Israeli officials. The IDF’s death toll stands at 217 since the offensive began after the October 7 Hamas attack. Israel has said the current assault on Khan Younis is its last large-scale ground attack before it shifts to lower-intensity, more targeted operations to dismantle Hamas.
Officials have said they believe militant leaders may be hiding in tunnels beneath the city, which is the second most populated in Gaza. Israeli tanks reached the gates of two hospitals earlier this week and began firing at Nasser Hospital yesterday afternoon.
Nasser is the largest hospital still functioning in Gaza and the only major one accessible in Khan Younis. Videos taken before the IDF’s attack showed a trauma ward already overwhelmed with wounded – some being treated on the blood-splashed floor.
A spokesman for the Palestine Red Crescent rescue service told the Associated Press that Al-Amal Hospital had also been hit by a shell during the fighting, killing one person and wounding ten.
Medical teams were unable to enter or exit the hospital, with a territory-wide power outage further complicating rescue efforts.
Another six Gazans were killed in a UN shelter in Khan Younis this week, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote online that Monday was ‘one of the hardest days’ since the conflict began. He added: ‘In the name of our heroes, and for our own lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.’ But the attack has sparked further calls for a ceasefire deal.
Dozens of hostages’ relatives stormed a parliamentary meeting in Jerusalem this week to demand a deal to release the 130 captives still in Gaza. Talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, also seem to have stalled due to Israeli officials rejecting the possibility of a Palestinian state.
‘When one side says they don’t accept the two-state solution and that they won’t stop this war... it leads to a harder mediation process,’ Qatar official Majed Al-Ansari said yesterday. He cast doubt on claims Hamas had rejected a twomonth ceasefire offer from Israel.
‘A lot of these media reports are either missing elements or completely false,’ he said. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated that a pause in fighting was critical. He said: ‘You can’t enact safe passage for hostages out of a danger zone if people are shooting at each other.’
Gaza’s health ministry has said more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed since fighting began.