The Israeli army on Tuesday suffered one of the highest numbers of casualties in a single day since Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza in late October. Ten soldiers were killed during fighting in the north of the enclave, the army said.
Israeli military radio reported that nine of the soldiers had been killed in heavy fighting in Shajaiye, a Gaza City neighborhood that has been the focus of fighting in recent days as the army pushes to eradicate Hamas fighters from the enclave.
The army said the soldiers were killed during an “advanced phase of our efforts to clear the area of Hamas.” It said they were killed while trying to rescue wounded soldiers who had lost contact with their unit after coming under fire in a building described by the military as a residential area with a tunnel opening on the site.
Major General Gadi Shamni, a retired former commander of the Israeli army’s Gaza division who operated in Shajaiye in the early 2000s, said the fighting in the neighborhood was problematic because of the tightly packed buildings. Moreover, he said, “rescue missions are always more difficult because you take greater risks to save your soldiers.”
Israel’s report could not be independently confirmed. Hamas said in a statement on the Telegram app that the Israeli army’s announcement “confirmed the failure of the leaders of the entities and its army in confronting the strong resistance of the Qassam Brigades.”
Most of the casualties on Tuesday were infantry fighters, but they also included a colonel and a lieutenant colonel, the highest-ranking Israeli officers to have been killed since the invasion began, according to the Israeli military.
Although Israel expanded its ground invasion of southern Gaza this month, heavy fighting is ongoing in northern Gaza. Since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, 444 Israeli soldiers have been killed, according to the country’s military. About a quarter of these casualties have occurred since Israel began its ground invasion, the military said.
At the same time, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 15,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been killed in Israel’s military retaliation campaign. Health officials in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and Hamas fighters in their death tolls.