Another Israeli soldier killed in southern Gaza clashes: Army

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army said Thursday that one more soldier was killed and two others injured in clashes with Palestinian fighters in the southern Gaza Strip.

A statement identified the slain soldier as Staff Sgt. Noam Douek,19, from the 9th Battalion of the 401st Armored Corps Brigade.

The army did not provide details on the injured soldiers.

The death brought the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the Israeli ground operation in Gaza on Oct. 27 to 327 and total fatalities for the army since Oct. 7 jumped to 687.

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 attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, in early October.

Nearly 39,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio