Seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in a Hamas attack in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Wednesday, one of the deadliest incidents for the force in months. Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have killed 74 people in the Palestinian territory over the past 24 hours, according to local health authorities.
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.
鈥淩escue forces and helicopters were dispatched to the scene and made attempts to extract the soldiers but were unsuccessful,鈥 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 鈥 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 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 food, with almost daily scenes of Israeli soldiers shooting dozens of people at the 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, the US president, Donald Trump, said that US strikes on Iran 鈥 which targeted three nuclear facilities 鈥 could help lead to a breakthrough on Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
鈥淚 think great progress is being made on Gaza. Because of the attack that we made, I think we鈥檙e going to have some very good news. I think that it helped a little bit, it showed a lot of power,鈥 Trump said at a press conference at a Nato summit in the Netherlands.
There have been calls within Israel for a Gaza ceasefire, with Israeli officials and media figures urging the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end the war. Moshe Gafni, a member of the Israeli Knesset and head of the United Torah Judaism alliance, criticised the continuation of the war in an interview on Wednesday.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 understand at this moment [why we are still fighting there]. I don鈥檛 understand what the need is 鈥 We need some kind of Trump here with us to say: 鈥極K, that鈥檚 it!鈥欌 Gafni said.
More rightwing members of the Israeli government have rejected calls for a ceasefire, with the 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 held in Gaza, 30 of whom are presumed dead.
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.
鈥淲e 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,鈥 the forum said in a statement.