Gaza Conflict: Hamas ambush Inflicts biggest combat losses on Israel since October

Following an ambush in the rubble of Gaza City, Israel reported on Wednesday that its combat losses had reached their lowest point in almost a month. As civilian casualties increased and the humanitarian crisis grew worse, Israel faced increasing diplomatic isolation.

Day after day, fierce combat broke out in the enclave’s north and south, with the UN calling for a quick humanitarian truce. According to US President Joe Biden, international solidarity is being negatively impacted by Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombing of people.

The entirety of Gaza was once more bombarded by warplanes, and relief workers said that the coming of wet winter weather made matters worse for the hundreds of thousands of families who were sleeping outside in improvised tents. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have already lost their homes.

With international support, Israel began its battle to destroy the militant Hamas organisation that rules Gaza on October 7 after fighters broke over the border fence, murdering 1,200 Israelis, the majority of whom were civilians, and taking 240 hostages.

However, since then, thousands more are thought to remain missing in the debris or out of the reach of ambulances, and Israeli forces have encircled and mostly destroyed the enclave, killing over 18,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The bodies of a family, including many little children, killed in a nocturnal air strike were being carried out in the rain in bloodied white shrouds in Rafah, at the southern end of the Strip where hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought shelter. Just one and only the

Israeli soldiers have expanded their offensive campaign from the northern Gaza Strip into the southern one, invading Khan Younis, the major city in the southern region, since a week-long truce broke down at the beginning of December.

In the meantime, fighting has only gotten worse in the north’s debris, where Israel had earlier declared that most of its military goals had been achieved.

Ten Israeli troops were reported dead in the last twenty-four hours, including a lieutenant-colonel in charge of a regiment and a full colonel overseeing a forward base. With the deaths of 15 on October 31, it was the biggest single-day loss ever.

The majority of the fatalities occurred in Gaza City’s northern Shejaiya neighbourhood, where troops were ambushed while attempting to save another set of soldiers who had attacked fighters in a building, the military said.

(With agency inputs)