21 Israeli soldiers killed in ambush
Ankara, Turkey - The Israeli army said on Tuesday that at least 21 troops were killed and several others injured in a single ambush in the central Gaza Strip.
In a statement, army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the incident took place near the Kissufim border community as Hamas attacked the soldiers attempting to destroy military infrastructure of the Palestinian resistance group.
He said the Hamas fighters fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli tank, while, simultaneously, an explosion caused two two-story buildings to collapse.
“The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the forces were inside and near them,” Hagari added.
He said an investigation had been launched into the incident as the explosion was the result of mines planted by Israeli soldiers, though the cause of their detonation is yet to be confirmed. The army published the names of 10 soldiers, while the families of the remaining 11 were notified.
The deaths bring the death toll of Israeli soldiers in Gaza since a ground assault began on October 27 to 219, while the army’s overall death toll since the launch of the Israeli offensive against Gaza on October 7 has risen to 556.
Palestinian death toll surges to 25,490
The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s continued attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7 has surged to 25,490, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said in a statement on Tuesday.
It said that 63,354 other people have also been injured in the onslaught.
The ministry statement came as the deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza entered its 109th day.
It said that the Israeli army committed 22 ‘massacres’ across the Gaza Strip, leaving 195 people dead and 354 others injured.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads and rescuers can’t reach them,” the statement said. Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a
cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas in October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
About 85 per cent of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, and all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.
EU underscores Egypt’s role
Egypt is and has to be a key partner in efforts for a two-state solution in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief said on Tuesday. Josep Borrell, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi held a joint news conference following a meeting in Brussels.
“We appreciate the crucial role played by Egypt, in ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza, on providing health care to medical evacuees, on negotiating the humanitarian pause, and the release of hostages in November,” Borrell said.
He noted that the EU aims to build a ‘coalition supportive to the relaunch of a political perspective for the two-state solution’. “And Egypt is and has to be a key partner in this regard,” he said.
“Israel does not have the veto right to the self determination of the Palestinian people,” he added.
Borrell stressed that Egypt is not a ‘strategic partner’ but a ‘strategic actor’ in the peace efforts in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Shoukry, for his part, urged for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza, describing the scale of the loss of life as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unprecedented’.
“It is the responsibility of the international community … to deal with the ensuing cycle of violence, conflict, animosity that has played the region for 40 years and more, since the conflict erupted. It is time to resolve it. It is no longer the time to try to manage it, to try to postpone it,” the minister stressed.
He added that the international community has the means, resources, and mechanisms to do so, ‘if the political will exists’.
EU commissioner Varhelyi praised Egypt’s ‘hard work’ in regional affairs.
“It’s been with us since the Syrian war. And Egypt is a host of a very large refugee community. Something only a few are talking about,” the commissioner added.
In a statement, Israeli army said the incident took place near Kissufim border community as Hamas attacked the soldiers attempting to destroy military infrastructure of the Palestinian resistance group