By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army said Thursday that three soldiers were injured in an ambush in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
"Three soldiers were moderately wounded after being exposed to an explosion in an ambush east of Rafah,” it said in a statement. “The wounded soldiers were evacuated for medical treatment to one of the hospitals, and their families were informed.”
The statement came shortly after the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, announced that it detonate “an explosive tunnel in a Zionist force consisting of 3 vehicles, an excavator, and a number of soldiers east of Rafah.”
The Brigades added in a statement on Telegram, that the attack "resulted in one soldier killed and another wounded," without clarifying if it was the same ambush in which the Israeli army said three soldiers were injured.
In the last 24 hours, the Israeli army said another soldier was killed and four others injured, bringing the declared losses since the start of the onslaught on Gaza to 615 dead and 3,362 wounded, according to the army's data.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas which killed less than 1,200 people.
More than 34,900 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,500 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala