Seven Israeli soldiers killed in Hamas attack in southern Gaza Strip
The seven Israeli soldiers, in the 605th combat engineering battalion, were killed on Tuesday after militants planted a bomb on their vehicle while they were driving in Khan Younis, causing it to catch fire. Hamas later claimed responsibility for the attack.
'Rescue forces and helicopters were dispatched to the scene and made attempts to extract the soldiers but were unsuccessful,' said Brig Gen Effie Defrin, an Israeli army spokesperson, on Wednesday. He added that the 605th battalion was finding and demolishing tunnels, as well as killing militants, in Khan Younis.
Their deaths brought the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 to 879.
More than 56,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza by Israel, according to the health ministry, since the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
At least 40 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza were shot by Israeli forces on Tuesday, local medics and officials said.
The incident comes as Israel ends its war with Iran, agreeing to a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday.
Fighting started anew in Gaza in March, when Israel restarted its war after refusing to move to a second phase of a ceasefire, which could have led to a more permanent truce. Since then, negotiations for a second ceasefire have borne little progress, with Hamas insisting on a total end to the war in Gaza – a demand Israel has rejected.
Since March, humanitarian conditions in the beleaguered strip have deteriorated. Famine-like conditions reign after Israel imposed a nearly two-month siege on any humanitarian aid into the country. Unicef warned last week that 60% of water production facilities in Gaza were not functioning and that there was a 50% increase in acute child malnutrition from April to May.
More than 500 people have been shot dead by Israeli forces as they travelled to get food from a new US- and Israel-backed private food organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Chaos has reigned as hungry Palestinians have had to walk miles and navigate the complicated rules that the GHF and Israel have imposed to access aid, with almost daily scenes of Israeli soldiers shooting dozens of people at aid sites.
The GHF has been condemned as potentially being complicit in war crimes for what aid groups have alleged are its violations of the principles of neutrality and independence, pillars of humanitarian work.
On Wednesday, US president Donald Trump said that US strikes on Iran – which targeted three nuclear facilities – could help lead to a breakthrough on Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
'I think great progress is being made on Gaza. Because of the attack that we made, I think we're going to have some very good news. I think that it helped a little bit, it showed a lot of power,' Trump said at a press conference at a Nato summit in the Netherlands.
There were calls for a Gaza ceasefire within Israel, with Israeli officials and media figures calling on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza. Moshe Gafni, a member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the United Torah Judaism part, criticised the continuation of the war in an interview on Wednesday.
'I don't understand at this moment [why we are still fighting there]. I don't understand what the need is … We need some kind of Trump here with us to say: 'OK, that's it!'' Gafni said.
More rightwing members of the Israeli government have rejected calls for a ceasefire, with extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich saying on Wednesday that the Israeli military could defeat Hamas in Gaza within two months.
Israel has said that its aim is to return the remaining 50 hostages, 30 of which are presumed dead, held in Gaza.
The last US ceasefire draft involved a 60-day pause in fighting, and redoubled efforts towards long term peace, as well as the release of half of the living hostages and half of the deceased. Hamas previously proposed releasing fewer hostages as well as including a permanent end to the war in the ceasefire agreement.
On Tuesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement calling for the ceasefire with Iran to be expanded to Gaza.
'We call on the government to engage in urgent negotiations that will bring home all of the hostages and end the war. Those who can achieve a ceasefire with Iran can also end the war in Gaza,' the forum said in a statement.
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