In comments after the deadliest day for Israeli forces since the start of the ground offensive, the Israeli Prime Minister iterated his vow that Israel would push on with fighting in Gaza until “absolute victory.”
“Yesterday we experienced one of the most difficult days since the war erupted,” Benjamin Netanyahu averred.
“In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory, ” he declared.
Netanyahu disclosed that the military was investigating the incident in which 21 soldiers were killed when buildings exploded in central Gaza, bringing the single-day Israeli death toll to 24.
Earlier that day, the military said that three soldiers were killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.
It makes it the largest single loss of life for the Israeli military since the war began.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Chief military Spokesperson, made the announcement on Tuesday, January 23, 2023.
He revealed that the soldiers were preparing explosives to demolish two buildings on Monday, January 22, 2023 when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby, setting off the explosion prematurely. The buildings collapsed on the soldiers, all of whom were said to be reservists.
Hagari was quoted as saying the incident took place in central Gaza, close to the kibbutz of Kissufim on the Israeli side of the border, at 4pm local time (2pm GMT) on Monday.
A medical evacuation team was deployed but it was a “complicated operation, which took place until the last hours,” Hagari said, indicating the difficulty in extracting bodies buried under the rubble.
Support for the war remains high among Israelis, however, opinion polls show lagging support for Netanyahu and his far-right coalition.
Weekly Saturday night rallies demanding the release of hostages have been supplemented in recent weeks by growing calls for elections.
After hearing the news of the deaths of the Israeli soldiers in Gaza, Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog took to social media platform, X, to express his sorrow.
He posted, “An unbearably difficult morning, in which more and more names of the best of our sons – the silver tray in the full sense of the word – are added to the hero’s tombstone, in a war that has no justice.”
“Behind every name is a family whose world has fallen on one, a family that we take to our hearts with sorrow and pain, and at the same time with pride – for the heroism of the generation, for the missions and evils, for sticking to the goal and for the love of the people and the homeland.”
Isaac Herzog
Herzog said that “intense battles” were taking place in “an extremely challenging space.”
Death toll in Gaza reaches 25,490
Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said on Tuesday that a total of 25,490 Palestinians have been killed and 63,354 have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The ministry added that at least 195 Palestinians were killed and 354 injured in the past 24 hours.
Most of the casualties have been women and children, the ministry has said, and thousands more bodies are likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.
Israel’s military also said on Tuesday that its troops had encircled the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Over the past day, IDF troops carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area. The area is a significant stronghold of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade,” the military said.
“Ground troops engaged in close-quarters combat, directed (air force) strikes, and used intelligence to coordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists,” it said.
Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it claims to be the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants.
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