At least ten Israeli soldiers were killed when they were ambushed by Palestinian militants in a dense Gaza City neighborhood while trying to rescue a group that had attacked fighters in a building, the army said Wednesday. This is the worst Israeli loss in a day since the death of 15 other soldiers on October 31.
More than six weeks after Israeli soldiers invaded northern Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, ground troops are still engaged in intense fighting with Palestinian fighters in and around Gaza City.
Clashes broke out in multiple areas overnight Wednesday, with fighting especially intense in Shijaiyah, a dense neighborhood that was the site of a major battle during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
“It’s frightening. We couldn’t sleep,” Mustafa Abu Taha, a Palestinian farm worker who lives in the neighborhood, said by phone. “The situation is getting worse and we have no safe place to go.”
Troops searching a group of buildings in Shijaiyah on Tuesday lost communication with four soldiers who had been attacked, the military said. When the other soldiers launched a rescue operation, they were ambushed with heavy gunfire and explosives.
Among the nine dead were Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the highest-ranking officer killed in the ground operation, and Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, a battalion commander.
Hamas said the incident demonstrated that Israeli forces will never be able to subdue Gaza: “The longer they remain there, the greater the toll of their deaths and losses will be, and they will emerge from there with the tail of disappointment and loss, God willing.” “.
In the northern strip, heavy fighting also occurred in the Jabaliya district, where Gaza health officials say Israeli forces besieged and raided a hospital and detained and abused medical staff.
In the south, Israeli forces assaulting Khan Younis have advanced towards the city center in recent days. “The Israeli tanks have not moved further from the city center. They face fierce resistance and we hear exchanges of gunfire and also explosions,” Abu Abdallah, a father of five who lives 2 kilometers away, told Reuters.
Hospitals in the north have largely stopped functioning entirely. In the south, they are overwhelmed by the number of dead and wounded, transported by the dozens during the day and night.
“Doctors, including me, step over children’s bodies to treat children who will die,” Dr Chris Hook, a British doctor with Doctors Without Borders at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, told Reuters.