The occupying Israeli regime has confirmed that five IDF soldiers were killed and 14 injured during intense fighting in northern Gaza last night.
“Five soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Kfir Brigade were killed in battles in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday evening, and 14 others were injured, including two seriously wounded,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
The casualties have been identified as Staff Sergeant Meir Shimon Amar, 20, Sergeant Moshe Nissim French, 20, Staff Sergeant Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20, Sergeant First Class Benyamin Asulin, 28, and Staff Sergeant Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21.
Netzah Yehuda is made up mostly of ultra-Orthodox Jewish soldiers and was set up in 1999 to accommodate the religious lifestyle of Haredi Jews and other national-religious recruits in the army.
The all-male battalion has been condemned for alleged human rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank forcing Washington to consider imposing sanctions on the group.
According to reports, an Israeli security official said explosive devices were detonated against the soldiers during an operation in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza, which was an early target of the war and an area where Israel has repeatedly fought regrouping Hamas fighters.
An Israeli broadcaster reported: “The infantry soldiers were hit by a bomb planted on the side of a road shortly after 10pm (7pm BST) on Monday, during ground operations in Beit Hanoun. The soldiers were operating on foot, and were not inside a vehicle
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“While evacuating the injured from the explosion site, armed militants fired from an ambush towards the rescue forces, resulting in more casualties.”
The IDF said the evacuation became complicated and prolonged, and additional rescue forces were called.
The attack came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump about a ceasefire plan to pause the fighting in Gaza.
Reacting to the deadly incident during his visit to Washington, Netanyahu said: “On this difficult morning, the entire people of Israel bow their heads and mourn the deaths of our heroic fighters, who sacrificed their lives in the campaign to defeat Hamas and free all of our hostages. We embrace the families who lost their loved ones, and pray for the full recovery of those wounded in the incident.”
While there was no word of a breakthrough, the killing of the soldiers will add to the mounting pressure on Netanyahu to end the genocide in Gaza.
This latest offensive brings the death toll of occupying Israeli soldiers killed to 888 since the war on Gaza began in October 2023. Some 6,060 officers and soldiers have been wounded since the start of the war on Gaza, including 2,768 during ground operations.
The IDF has attempted to secure Beit Hanoun, located on the northern edge of Gaza, just across from the border city of Sderot, numerous times since the start of its military campaign, capturing the town but withdrawing each time after several weeks.
Israeli officials have said the latest attack in Gaza would see the IDF holding onto the territory. Currently, the occupying Israeli military is in control of around 70 percent of the Strip’s territory, according to the army.
Gaza’s killing fields
The occupying Israeli regime has killed more than 57,500 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children since October 7, 2023.
The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable, and has led to severe food shortages, famine and the spread of disease.
At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured on Tuesday in new Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, officials and Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Four Palestinians, including an infant, were killed when an Israeli aircraft struck a house in Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, Al-Shifa Hospital said.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis also received bodies of two people who were targeted by an Israeli drone on the Khan Younis-Rafah western road, southern Gaza Strip.
In another attack, four family members were killed and many others injured in a strike that targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis.
Three Palestinians were also killed when a tent sheltering displaced people next to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was targeted.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian was killed near the Shuhada Mosque area in Khan Younis, while several others were injured in a strike on a second tent sheltering displaced in the al-Mawasi area.
