The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said 21 of its reserve soldiers were killed in an attack in Gaza on Monday, the deadliest single incident that the military has suffered since its ground offensive in the enclave began.
At around 4 p.m., a Hamas militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank as the reservists were preparing to demolish a pair of two-story buildings, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a statement. The blast triggered explosives which had been set inside the buildings for the demolitions, causing both structures to collapse on the troops, Hagari said.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the IDF had launched an inquiry into the incident, calling it “one of the most difficult days since the outbreak of the war.”
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“We must learn the necessary lessons and do everything to safeguard the lives of our fighters,” he added in a statement. “On behalf of our heroes, for our very lives, we will not stop fighting until total victory.”
The Israeli military had earlier announced that three more soldiers had died in a separate attack in the south of the Gaza Strip. Monday’s total toll of 24 soldiers lost is the largest in a single day that Israel has sustained so far in the enclave. “This is a war that will determine the future of Israel for decades to come,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant wrote on X. “[T]he fall of the fighters is a requirement to achieve the goals of the war.”
President Isaac Herzog similarly lamented an “unbearably difficult morning” in “a war that has no justice.” “Behind every name is a family whose world has fallen, a family that we take to our hearts with sorrow and pain, and at the same time with pride—for the heroism of the generation, for the missions and evils, for sticking to the goal and for the love of the people and the homeland,” he added.
The Israeli casualties came as its forces continued operations in Khan Younis, the main city in southern Gaza. Many sought refuge in the settlement as Israel launched a massive and destructive military campaign in the north in late October, ordering residents to flee for their own safety. Palestinian officials say several hospitals in the crowded city have been blockaded or stormed by the Israelis since Monday, exacerbating an already desperate humanitarian crisis, Reuters reports. Israel claims that militants operate in and around the hospitals—claims which Hamas denies.
Tel Aviv has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 terror attacks which saw 1,200 killed and approximately 250 others abducted in southern Israel, according to Israeli figures. Palestinian officials say Israel’s operation in Gaza has so far killed over 25,000 people, while millions more have been left homeless by the conflict.
On Tuesday, the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees said 570,000 people in Gaza are also facing “catastrophic hunger” and published images of people forced to flee from Khan Younis. Exhausted parents carrying hungry children,” the UNRWA wrote. “The elderly pushed in wheelchairs. All looking for safety where there is none.”
The deaths of Israeli soldiers Monday came amid international calls for a ceasefire, with Axios reporting that Tel Aviv had offered to Hamas a pause in the fighting for up to two months in exchange for all of the remaining hostages to be released from Gaza. An official in Egypt—one of the countries reportedly involved in mediating proposed deals between Israel and the militants—told the Associated Press that Hamas rejected the offer, insisting that no more of the estimated 130 hostages still in captivity will be freed until Israel ends its offensive and leaves Gaza altogether.
On Monday, the U.S. announced the identities of two Navy SEALs who died in the Red Sea crisis which sprang out of the war in Gaza. Houthi rebels have attacked ships en route to the Suez canal which they deemed to have links to Israel. The U.S. and U.K. responded with two rounds of military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
