Twenty-four killed in deadliest day for Israeli forces of Gaza war
Netanyahu vows to fight for ‘absolute victory’ after 21 soldiers killed in one attack and three in another
Tue 23 Jan 2024 11.37 CET
Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza on Monday, by far the biggest single-day Israeli death toll in the three-month-old war against Hamas.
The deaths came amid fierce fighting around the key southern city of Khan Younis, with dozens of Palestinians killed and wounded. The Israeli deaths are likely to increase domestic pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu over his leadership and handling of the war effort.
An Israeli military spokesperson said 21 soldiers were killed in Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza when two buildings they had mined for demolition collapsed after militants fired grenades at a nearby tank. Reports in local media said explosives set by the soldiers detonated prematurely.
Earlier, the military said three soldiers were killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza. A total of 221 soldiers have been killed in the offensive, which some analysts in Israel have said could continue for many months, even into next year.
Israeli forces have encircled Khan Younis, where it is thought Hamas leaders are sheltering in tunnels. The recent Israeli advances have taken them close to areas sheltering a million or more Palestinians forced out of other parts of the territory by fighting or the destruction of their homes and all essential infrastructure.
Aid officials say Israeli blockades and the storming of hospitals in Khan Younis in the last 48 hours have left the wounded and dead beyond the reach of rescuers, even as fighting escalated in the crowded city. The dead were being buried inside the grounds of Khan Younis’s main Nasser hospital because it was unsafe to leave to reach the cemetery.
Israeli troops entered another Khan Younis hospital, al-Khair, where they arrested staff. Palestinian officials said al-Amal hospital, where Red Crescent rescuers are based, was cut off and unreachable.
Israeli officials say Hamas fighters operate in and around medical facilities, making them legitimate targets. Hospital staff and Hamas deny this.
The Israeli offensive began after Hamas’s attacks into Israel on 7 October, when the group killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 240 hostages. About half of these remain in Gaza, and dozens are thought to have died there.
At least 25,295 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been confirmed killed in the Israeli offensive, according to Palestinian authorities, and thousands more dead are thought to remain unidentified the rubble.
The large death toll of Israeli troops in fighting comes at a time when Israel is beginning to see the first stirrings of discontent with Netanyahu’s war strategy, which aims to “crush” Hamas but which has not involved detailed discussion of what would come next for Gaza.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said: “Yesterday we experienced one of our most difficult days since the war erupted. In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory.”
He has vowed repeatedly not to allow Palestinians to have an independent state, angering Israel’s main ally, Washington, which has considered a peace process ultimately leading to a Palestinian state as the bedrock of its Middle East policy for decades.
Support for the war remains high among Israelis, but opinion polls show support lagging for Netanyahu and his far-right coalition. Weekly Saturday night rallies demanding the release of hostages still held in Gaza have been supplemented in recent weeks by growing calls for elections.
Relatives of hostages have called for greater efforts to be made to bring them home, even if that means ending the military campaign. A group of them disrupted a parliamentary finance committee meeting on Monday, chanting “Release them now, now, now!”.
On Sunday, Netanyahu rejected Hamas conditions for ending the war and releasing the hostages, which included the Islamist group retaining control of Gaza and Israel withdrawing completely. In response, a Hamas official in Qatar said Netanyahu’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza meant there was “no chance for the return of the captives”.
A senior Egyptian official said Israel had proposed a two-month ceasefire in which the hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and senior Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
The official, who was not authorised to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas had rejected the proposal and was insisting that no more hostages will be released until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. Israel’s government declined to comment on the talks.
The official said Egypt and Qatar, which have brokered past agreements between Israel and Hamas, were developing a multistage proposal to try to bridge the gaps.
A total of 110 Israelis and other nationals were released in return for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons as part of a week-long truce at the end of November. Several attempts at a ceasefire since have failed.
Aid organisations say the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic, with famine threatening hundreds of thousands and a “decimated” health service.
Israel will face pressure to allow more aid into Gaza and to accept a future Palestinian state at a meeting of the UN security council in New York on Tuesday.
Before the meeting, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, met his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in New York to urge Israel to agree to a ceasefire and warn the US not to fuel the spread of the conflict.
The meeting comes against a backdrop of a second US-UK coordinated raid against Houthi strongholds in Yemen, as well as intensified fighting in southern Gaza.
The conflict in Gaza has been accompanied by an escalation in violence elsewhere in the Middle East, especially where armed groups allied to Iran operates, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report
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