The Israeli army said that eight soldiers died in the explosion of an armored vehicle as a convoy left Rafah. Over three hundred soldiers have died since the war against Hamas began. The health situation in the Strip is also worrying
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Eight Israeli soldiers died on Saturday morning in an explosion in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. This was announced by the army (IDF), in what marks the deadliest incident for Israeli forces in the Strip since January.
The army released information on only one of the soldiers, the families of the other seven soldiers have been informed and their names will be released later. According to an initial investigation, the soldiers were all killed inside an armored vehicle of combat engineering (Cev) Namer.
The soldiers were traveling in a convoy around 5 a.m. Saturday following an overnight offensive against Hamas in the northwestern areas of Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, during which troops from the 401st Armored Brigade killed around 50 gunmen, added the IDF.
The convoy was heading towards the buildings captured by the army, to rest the troops after the night operation. The armored vehicle was the fifth or sixth vehicle in the convoy and at a certain point it was hit by a strong explosion. It is not yet clear whether it was a bomb planted in advance or if Hamas agents approached the vehicle with an explosive device and placed it directly on the Cev
The military is also investigating the possibility that explosives stored outside the CEV contributed to the strong explosion. Normally, mines and other explosives stored on the outside of an armored personnel carrier they would fail to cause injury to the troops inside if they exploded. According to the army, there were no shots fired during the incident and the vehicle was not stationary when the explosion occurred.
Their deaths bring to 307 the toll of IDF soldiers killed in the ground offensive against Hamas and in operations along the border with Gaza.
Less than a third of health facilities in operation, over 37 thousand deaths in Gaza
The situation in the Strip remains alarming. In an update on social media, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). he wrote that dilapidated hospitals, restrictions on humanitarian access, and scarce medical supplies and fuel across Gaza are pushing the health situation beyond the crisis level. “Health workers continue to support families but less than a third of our health centers are operational,” UNRWA added.
The death toll in Gaza since the beginning of the war has meanwhile risen to 37,296, while the wounded are 85,197. The Hamas Ministry of Health announced this by updating the death toll and underlining that 30 deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours alone.
