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Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, including 21 in a single incident, making it the deadliest day for the Jewish state since the start of its ground offensive against Hamas in October.
Reservist units were clearing houses in central Gaza about 600m from the border on Monday afternoon when two buildings exploded and collapsed on the 21 soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The forces had laid mines inside the buildings ahead of a planned demolition. The mines are thought to have been set off by a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a nearby tank, though the cause of the explosion is still being investigated, said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief IDF spokesperson, on Tuesday morning.
Three additional officers were reported killed during fierce fighting earlier in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, bringing the IDF death toll during the ground operation to 219.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, said it was a “difficult and painful morning”, adding that “the fall of the soldiers compels us to achieve the goals of the fighting”.
“This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come,” he said.
Israel launched a punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza with the goal of “destroying” the Palestinian militant group in response to its surprise October 7 cross-border attack. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli figures.
More than three months into the campaign, the IDF is still labouring to dismantle Hamas as a fighting and governing force, with the group’s senior leadership still alive and more than 130 Israeli hostages in captivity.
More than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory. International aid groups have warned of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in the enclave, where Israeli forces have reduced large swaths of territory to rubble and an estimated 80 per cent of residents have been displaced from their homes.
A weeklong ceasefire in late November facilitated the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, but diplomatic efforts towards a renewed agreement have stalled amid growing pressure on the Israeli government at home and abroad.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the possibility of halting the war despite growing pleas by relatives of the remaining hostages to secure their release “at any cost”.
Senior opposition lawmakers, influential media figures and even some members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet have indicated in recent weeks that the safe return of the hostages should take precedence over other war aims, including Hamas’s defeat.
“Contrary to what is being said, there is no genuine proposal by Hamas, this is not true,” Netanyahu told the hostages’ families in a meeting on Monday.
The prime minister said Hamas was demanding Israel end the war in Gaza, withdraw its forces, release members of the Nukhba unit that led the group’s October 7 attack on Israel and leave Hamas in power. “Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain,” he said.
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