The Israeli Defense Forces on Tuesday announced that 24 soldiers lost their lives in the Gaza Strip.
GistReporters.com gathered that this is the highest number of casualties since Israel’s ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.
According to the IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, 21 soldiers died when two buildings they had rigged to explode collapsed after militants threw grenades at a nearby tank.
Three other soldiers were said to have also died in a different attack in the south of Gaza.
Recall, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war against the Palestinians fighters until they achieve what he calls an “absolute victory.”
As the new year began, Israeli forces launched their biggest ground campaign, advancing into the west of Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the Palestinian territory, close to areas where hundreds of thousands of people who escaped from other parts of the territory were taking refuge.
According to Gazans, Israeli blockades and raids on hospitals since Monday made it impossible for rescuers to reach the injured and the dead as the fighting intensified in the densely populated city.
The dead were buried within the premises of Al Nasser hospital, the main hospital in Khan Younis, because it was too dangerous to go to the graveyard.
Israeli forces stormed Al-Khair hospital, another hospital in Khan Younis, and detained staff there, and a third hospital, Al-Amal, where Red Crescent rescuers were stationed, was isolated and inaccessible, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has claimed that Hamas fighters use hospitals as bases and hideouts, making them valid targets. But hospital staff and Hamas reject this claim.