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Jerusalem, (cni Seven Israeli soldiers lost their lives in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when an explosive device attached to their armored vehicle detonated, an Israeli military official reported on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s explosion marked a particularly lethal incident for Israel’s military operations inside Gaza. Since the conflict ignited with the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, over 860 Israeli soldiers have died, with more than 400 of these casualties occurring during the fighting in Gaza.
In another incident in the Khan Younis area, one soldier sustained serious injuries from gunfire on Tuesday, according to military sources.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed via its Telegram channel that it had ambushed Israeli soldiers taking cover in a residential building Tuesday in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to Hamas, some soldiers were killed and others injured after being targeted by a Yassin 105 missile and another missile south of Khan Younis. Al-Qassam fighters reportedly followed up by targeting the building with machine guns.
It remains unclear if the two reported incidents refer to the same attack.
This deadly attack coincides with reports indicating that the Palestinian death toll inside Gaza has surpassed 56,000.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that Israel’s 21-month military operation in Gaza has resulted in 56,077 fatalities.
Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in 2023 resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths, mostly civilians, and 251 individuals were taken hostage. Several hostages have since been freed through ceasefires or other agreements.
This conflict has produced the highest death toll in any round of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its reporting but asserts that more than half of the casualties are women and children.
The ministry noted that 5,759 individuals have died since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, terminating a two-month ceasefire.
Israel maintains that its operations only target militants and attributes civilian casualties to Hamas’s operating tactics in densely populated locales. Israel claims that over 20,000 Hamas militants have been killed but has not substantiated this with evidence. Hamas has not responded regarding its own casualties.
On Wednesday, a local Palestinian official reported that Israeli forces shot and killed a 66-year-old Palestinian woman in east Jerusalem. Israeli police indicated they are investigating the demise of a woman from east Jerusalem who was declared dead at a checkpoint after being delivered with “serious penetrating injuries” on Tuesday night.
Marouf Al-Refai, the Palestinian official, stated that Israeli forces invaded the Shuafat refugee camp overnight, fatally wounding Zahia Obeidi with a single shot to the head around 10 p.m. and subsequently seizing her body.
Refai also reported that Israeli forces arrested Obeidi’s husband and sons later that night. It was unclear by morning if they had been released.
Israel seized east Jerusalem, which includes the Old City and its significant religious sites for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, during the 1967 Mideast war, a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians aim to establish an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital cni