JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Wednesday that 115 soldiers had been killed so far in its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, including 10 the day before – the vast majority in a single battle.
The 10 deaths recorded on Tuesday made it the single deadliest day for the military since its ground assault on the Palestinian territory began on October 27.
According to the military's official list of casualties, nine of those killed on Tuesday belonged to units that a military spokesman said were involved in a fierce battle in Shejaiya. Two of those killed in the battle were senior officers.
"Yesterday afternoon a force of Golani (brigade) fighters entered a building, where they were met with heavy fire and fought with the fighters," spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
"More forces of the brigade, assisted by the 669 rescue unit of the Air Force, stormed the building in order to rescue them under heavy fire."
Another military official said that Shejaiya, a district of Gaza City, was a Hamas stronghold and home to complexes of interlinked buildings containing weapons caches.
Tuesday's clash occurred at one such cluster of three to four buildings rigged with improvised explosive devices, the official said.
The battle stretched on for several hours.
The official noted that around 350 Hamas fighters had been killed in Shejaiya since the start of the offensive.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw another 240 taken hostage, Israeli officials say.
The ensuing campaign has so far killed more than 18,600 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.--AFP
