Israel reported the loss of 24 soldiers on Tuesday, marking the highest single-day casualties since the commencement of its ground offensive in Gaza. This comes amid increasing pressure on the government to put an end to the conflict.
Israel said on Tuesday that 24 soldiers died in the biggest single-day losses since the start of its ground war in Gaza, amid growing pressure on the government to end the conflict.
Israel’s Army said 21 of the 24 troops killed on Monday were reservists who were slain when rocket-propelled grenade fire hit a tank and two buildings they were trying to blow up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation was launched into the “disaster” and that Israel “must learn the necessary lessons.”
Khan Younes ‘Encircled’
On the ground, fighting raged in Khan Younes, southern Gaza’s main city, which the Israeli Army said it had “encircled.”
Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli tanks fired on Nasser hospital in Khan Younes on Tuesday, with “dozens expected to be wounded.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond when asked by AFP about firing at the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces had hit its headquarters in Khan Younes, “resulting in injuries among internally displaced individuals who sought safety on our premises.”
UN agencies and aid groups have sounded the alarm about the growing threat of disease and famine in Gaza, where 1.7 million people are estimated to have been uprooted.
Gaza is “slipping every day into a much more catastrophic situation,” said Abeer Etefa, senior Middle East spokeswoman for the World Food Programme.
The territory has “the largest concentration of people in what looks like famine-like conditions anywhere in the world,” she added.
About 1,140 people have been killed in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
At least 25,490 people in Gaza have been killed, with around 70 percent of them being women, young children, and adolescents, according to the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave.
Hopes for a Hostage Deal
Netanyahu’s vow to destroy Hamas is increasingly seen within the cabinet as incompatible with returning hostages, experts say.
US news outlet Axios reported on Monday that Israel had proposed to Hamas, via Qatari and Egyptian mediators, a new deal to free all the hostages.
The report, citing unnamed Israeli officials, said the proposed deal would be carried out in multiple stages and involve releasing an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.
The plan was expected to take about two months to complete.
The proposal does not include promises to end the war but would involve Israeli troops reducing their presence in major cities in Gaza and gradually allowing residents to return to the territory’s devastated north, Axios said.
Qatar’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations and said many media reports “are either missing elements or completely false.”
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP that a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to meet with Egypt’s intelligence chief and discuss new ceasefire proposals.
US and UK Hit Yemen’s Houthis
The Gaza war has spurred fears of a wider escalation, with a surge in violence involving Iran-backed Hamas allies across the region.
The United States and the United Kingdom launched new air strikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis over their attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The Houthis, who say their action targets Israeli-linked shipping in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, warned that “these attacks will not go unanswered and unpunished.”
Read more
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
