Israel suffers worst Gaza losses, claims to have encircled Khan Younis

[January 23, 2024]  By Bassam Masoud, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in Israel's worst day of losses in Gaza, the military said on Tuesday, as it claimed to have encircled southern Gaza's main city in a major ground assault.

Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 21 soldiers were killed when two buildings they had mined for demolition exploded after militants fired at a nearby tank. Earlier, three soldiers were reported killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.

"Yesterday we experienced one of our most difficult days since the war erupted," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."

The deaths came amid the heaviest fight of 2024 so far, as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) stormed remaining parts of Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the enclave sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.

"Over the past day, IDF troops carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Younis and deepened the operation in the area. The area is a significant stronghold of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade," the military said.

"Ground troops engaged in close-quarters combat, directed (air) strikes, and used intelligence to coordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists."

Gazans say the Israeli forces, advancing west across the crowded city towards the Mediterranean coast since Monday, have blockaded and stormed hospitals, leaving the wounded and dead beyond the reach of rescuers.

At least 195 Palestinians were killed in the previous 24 hours, raising the documented toll to 25,490, according to Palestinian health officials, who say thousands more dead are feared lost in the rubble.

Bodies were being buried in the grounds of Khan Younis's main Nasser hospital because it was unsafe to go to the cemetery. Another Khan Younis hospital, Al-Khair, was stormed by Israeli troops who arrested staff there, and a third, Al-Amal, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent, was unreachable, according to Palestinian officials.

The Red Crescent said a tank shell had hit its headquarters on Amal's fourth floor, a civilian had been killed at the entrance, and Israeli forces were firing from drones on anyone who moved nearby, making it impossible to dispatch ambulances for the entire Khan Younis area.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, making them legitimate targets. Hospital staff and Hamas deny this.

'GRAVEYARD FOR THE OCCUPATION'

Palestinians celebrated the Israeli losses as a victory, while Israelis spoke of them as a necessary sacrifice in a war against Hamas fighters who attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing some 250 hostages, around half of whom remain in Gaza.

"The resistance said it is going to make Gaza a graveyard for the occupation, and this is what is happening,” said Abu Khaled, sheltering in a school in Deir al-Balah, one of the few areas yet to be stormed by Israeli forces.

A tank stands near the border with the central Gaza, as the conflict continues between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Israel January 22, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

"The more they stay, the more we will suffer for sure - but the more they will suffer too."

Blina Rhodes, an Israeli woman on the street in Jerusalem, said: "You know, it’s our sons, it’s our brothers, it’s terrible - but we've got to do what we've got to do so that Oct. 7 doesn’t happen again. You have to get rid of Hamas and make Gaza safe for us. Otherwise, we have no place to live."

Sami Abu Zuhri, head of the political office of Hamas in exile, said the Israeli losses were proof that the armed wing of Hamas was only getting stronger, and "the American and Israeli goal to get rid of Hamas or weaken it is not possible".

"We call on the American administration to stop this pointless policy and stop betting on the possibility of weakening or finishing Hamas," he said by phone from an undisclosed location. "Instead, the American administration must recognise the rights of the Palestinian people in freedom."

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and has controlled Gaza since 2007. Since Israel launched its ground assault in October, nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million people have lost their homes, the vast majority now penned into towns just north and south of Khan Younis, many sleeping rough in makeshift tents, with inadequate food, water or medication.

Though the war still has overwhelming public support in Israel, discontent is emerging with Netanyahu's strategy - committed to the total annihilation of Hamas but with only vague discussion of what should follow.

Since last week, Netanyahu has publicly vowed never to allow an independent Palestinian state, disavowing the decades-old bedrock of Middle East policy of Israel's main ally, Washington.

Relatives of hostages still held in Gaza have called for more effort to bring them home, even if that means reining in the military campaign. Some burst into a parliamentary committee hearing on Monday.

Last week, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, former military chief-of-staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose own soldier son was killed in Gaza last month, said the campaign had yet to dismantle Hamas and there was no hope of freeing the hostages by force. He called for elections to replace a government he said had lost public confidence.

The conflict has been accompanied by an escalation in violence elsewhere in the Middle East where armed groups allied to Israel's arch-foe Iran operate, including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which controls most of the populated parts of Yemen, has attacked shipping in the Red Sea in what it says is support for Gaza. The United States and Britain, which have retaliated against the Houthis this month, carried out more air strikes overnight.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Doha, Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Emily Rose, Ari Rabinovitch and Kate Holton in Jerusalam; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kevin Liffey)

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