Israel Suffers Biggest Daily Loss of Soldiers Since Conflict Began

Israel has said that its forces suffered its deadliest attack since the start of the war against Palestinian militant group Hamas after 21 soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Another three soldiers were killed in a separate attack earlier in the day.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said reservists had been preparing explosives to demolish two buildings in central Gaza, close to the kibbutz of Kissufim on the Israeli side of the border, at around 4 p.m. local time when a Hamas militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at a nearby tank.

The blast triggered the explosives, causing both the buildings to collapse on the 21 soldiers inside, Hagari said, adding that explosion probably happened because of the mines that Israeli forces had placed there to demolish them.

The IDF operation was intended to allow residents of southern Israel to safely return to their homes following the evacuation of tens of thousands of people after the Hamas attack on October 7 in which 1,200 were killed and around 250 were taken hostage.

A spokesperson for the IDF told Newsweek in an emailed statement on Tuesday that at the time of the explsion, its forces had been "operating to remove structures and terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to the security of Israeli communities.

"It appears that an RPG missile was fired by Hamas terrorists toward a tank which was securing the force," the statement said. "Simultaneously, there was an explosion which resulted in the collapse of two two-story structures while many troops were either inside or nearby.

"Commanders operating in the field, along with rescue teams that arrived at the scene, have been executing a very complex operation to evacuate the casualties and locate the injured."

Search and Rescue Brigades of the Home Front Command were deployed to the site and have conducted an assessment, as well as searches, and extraction efforts in cooperation with the National Rescue Unit, Unit 669, Oketz Unit, and troops of the 143rd Division, the IDF statement added.

Israel's military has also said its troops had encircled the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed and wounded in heavy fighting.

The IDF website says 217 of its soldiers have been killed since the beginning of Israel's ground invasion on October 27 out of a total of 545 killed since October 7. Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on X, "on behalf of the entire nation, I console the families and pray for the healing of the wounded."

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the latest deaths as "one of the most difficult days since the war erupted" in an X post in which he added, "we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."

Netanyahu also promised to get back over 100 hostages still in Gaza, although captives' families stormed a Knesset committee meeting on Monday in anger at how this process is being conducted.

An unnamed Egyptian official said that Israel had proposed a 2-month ceasefire to allow the exchange of hostages taken on October 7 for jailed Palestinians, The Associated Press reported. It added that under the plan, top Hamas leaders in Gaza could relocate to other countries. However, the official said that Hamas rejected the proposal and will release no more hostages until Israel ends its offensive.

The offensive has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory, cited by the AP, and displaced an estimated 85 percent of Gaza's population. The United Nations and aid agencies have said that a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million people are facing starvation.