12 Israeli soldiers injured in past 24 hours in Gaza

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - At least 12 Israeli soldiers have been injured in the past 24 hours, including five in ground battles in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army reported Wednesday.

"The number of injured soldiers and officers since the beginning of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 has risen to 3,860," the army said on its website.

It added that among the total soldiers injured, 1,947 were wounded in ground clashes in the Palestinian enclave.

The army had earlier raised the number of Israeli soldiers and officers killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 to 662, including 311 since the start of ground fighting on Oct. 27.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 37,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul