Four more Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the north of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has confirmed the new deaths.
The deaths brought to 403 the number of soldiers killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel launched its ground offensive in retaliation for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack.
An officer and a reservist soldier were “seriously wounded” during the same incident and were taken to a hospital, the military said in a statement.
The military said Saturday it had killed three militants in a ground operation near Jabalia in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been waging an intense offensive since early October, saying it aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said it counted eight people killed near Jabalia, including two children in an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter. Defense agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed “thousands of displaced people.”
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
