Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday when two buildings set to be demolished by its army collapsed after a Hamas rocket attack, marking the deadliest military incident in Israel since the war began.
Three more soldiers were killed in fighting in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call Monday “one of the most difficult days” of the war.
The 21 fallen soldiers had been operating more than a third of a mile from the Israeli border town of Kissufim on Monday, as troops prepared to blow up two Hamas sites with planted explosives, the Times of Israel reports.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Tuesday that while the soldiers were completing their task, a terrorist appeared and fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank protecting ground soldiers.
The explosion killed at least two soldiers and injured several more, according to IDF sources, and a subsequent explosion activated mines that troops had placed around the two buildings.
“The buildings collapsed due to this explosion, while most of the forces were inside and near them,” Hagari told reporters.
Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were killed when a Hamas terrorist fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the group, apparently triggering the planned demolition of two buildings by the Israel Defense Forces. Soldiers carry the coffin for Master Sgt. Elkana Vizel, 35, squadron commander of the 261st Brigade. AP
Hagari noted that while the mine detonation remains under investigation, it was likely caused by a second RPG fired at the troops.
The dead soldiers were part of the IDF’s 205th and 261st Brigades and ranged in age from 22 to 40 years old, according to the Israeli military.
“The best sons of this country, who volunteered to defend the home and paid the dearest price,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Hertzi Halevi said in a statement describing the fallen. “We share their families’ pain over their great loss and they know the pain is too much to bear.”
A map of where 21 Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hamas rocket attack in Gaza.
Halevi added that the soldiers’ mission was to ensure that Hamas could no longer operate in the area and to facilitate the return of Palestinian and Israeli residents who have been displaced by the war.
It is the deadliest incident for the IDF since the start of its ground incursion into Gaza. Israel’s military death toll since putting boots on the ground is now 219.
In addition to the 21 soldiers killed near the border, three more soldiers were killed during an assault on Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, on Monday.
His loved ones mourn the death of the captain. Nir Binyamin, 29, who died in the explosion. Getty Images Family members gather Tuesday for the funeral of Sgt. Major Matan Lazar, 32, of the 261st Brigade. fake images
Given the two dozen deaths in the span of 24 hours, Netanyahu described Monday as “one of the most difficult days” of the war.
“In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory,” he said.
To that end, the Israeli army has now surrounded Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The city has recently seen its heaviest fighting since December, as the IDF focuses on eliminating Hamas from the region and locating and rescuing the more than 130 hostages who remain in Gaza.
The 98th Division is leading the Khan Younis offensive, which began Sunday, with soldiers directing a series of airstrikes against Hamas sites there and clashing with gunmen on the ground, the Times said.
The IDF continues its advances into southern Gaza, with Khan Younis surrounded by Israeli troops. Xinhua/Shutterstock
The fighting in Khan Younis is once again forcing countless Palestinians to flee further south or west after hundreds of thousands sought refuge in the city during the height of the fighting in northern Gaza.
Heavy shelling and shooting in southern Gaza is likely to continue, as the temporary truce deal just unveiled by Israel has apparently already failed.
The tentative Israeli proposal, which would have released all hostages in Gaza in phases in exchange for a two-month ceasefire, was rejected by Hamas, an Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Smoke rises over Khan Younis on Tuesday morning after an Israeli airstrike. AFP via Getty Images
The working proposal had flatly rejected two of the biggest conditions sought by Hamas: the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the departure of the IDF from Gaza.
As fighting in Gaza continues to escalate, so does the risk of further war in the region, as Yemen’s Houthi terrorist group, which sympathizes with Hamas, vowed that nightly airstrikes led by the United States and the United Kingdom against some of its strongholds “will not go unanswered.”
The group claimed that four of its governorates were hit when Western allies launched 18 airstrikes in the region, 12 of which hit the capital Sanaa.
The IDF said its soldiers died trying to clear Hamas infrastructure so Gazans displaced by the war could return to their homes. AP
The United States and the United Kingdom said in a statement that only eight sites were hit by the airstrikes in Yemen.
Western nations are expected to announce new sanctions against the Houthis in the coming days after putting the group back on the list of terrorist organizations for its repeated attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea as a show of solidarity with Hamas.
“We will use the most effective means at our disposal to cut off the financial resources of the Houthis, when they are used to finance these attacks,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his Parliament on Tuesday.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn