By Said Amori
JERUSALEM (AA) - Three Israeli soldiers have been killed and 14 injured when explosive devices were detonated inside a building in the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, the army said Saturday.
“Three soldiers were killed and 14 others were injured, including 5 in serious condition from the 450th Battalion of the army, due to the explosion of explosive devices in a building in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza,” the army said in a statement.
Army spokesman Daniel Haggai said “the army will investigate the explosions,” and that “the fighting in Khan Younis is difficult.”
The number of fatalities in the ranks of the Israeli army since Oct. 7 has risen to 585, and 245 since the start of the ground operation on Oct. 27.
Israel has ignored the International Court of Justice's provisional ruling and continued its attack on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 30,320 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 71,533 since early October, according to Palestinian health authorities
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv said killed less than 1,200 people.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala