Eight Israeli soldiers were killed this Saturday in the south of the Gaza StripThe army said, as forces continued to advance in and around the southern city of Rafah, and strikes hit several areas of Gaza, killing at least 19 Palestinians.
The soldiers, all members of a combat engineering unit, were in an armored vehicle that was hit by an explosion that detonated the engineering material it was carrying, apparently contravening standard practices, according to the military.
An investigation is underway into the early morning incident in the Tel al-Sultan area, west of Rafah.
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed that the vehicle had become trapped in a prepared minefield, which triggered the explosion.
Israeli tanks advanced on Tel al-Sultan and shells fell on the coastal area, where thousands of Palestinians, many of them already displaced several times, have sought refuge.
/Home Embedded Code/
/End Embedded Code/
Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to end the fighting still appears far off, more than eight months after the war began in October, as almost daily cross-border fire exchanges intensify. with Hezbollah militia fighters in southern Lebanon.
In Israeli airstrikes on two houses in the suburbs of Gaza City, residents say, at least 15 people were killed. Four others died in separate attacks in the south, according to doctors.
The Israeli military declared on Saturday that its forces in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the border with Egypt, had captured large quantities of weapons, both above ground and hidden in the extensive network of tunnels built by Hamas.
On Friday, militants had fired five rockets from the humanitarian zone in central Gaza, two of which landed in open areas of Israel and three in Gaza.
“This is yet another example of the cynical exploitation of humanitarian infrastructure and the civilian population as human shields by terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip for their terrorist attacks,” the army said.
/Home Embedded Code/
/End Embedded Code/
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had paid “a heartbreaking price in our just war in defense of our homeland,” but said his country would continue fighting this war “to secure our existence and our future.”
Aid agencies have warned of a dire humanitarian situation in Rafah, where, according to UN data, around a million Palestinians are refugees. Several world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have called on Israel not to carry out a large-scale attack against the region.
According to Hamas, more than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war and thousands more have been injured or displaced.
The armed conflict began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.
