By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - Nine Israeli soldiers have been injured in the past 24 hours, including seven in ground battles in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army reported on Friday.
"The number of injured soldiers and officers since the beginning of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 has risen to 2,918," the army said on its website.
It added that among the total soldiers injured, 1,368 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 572, including 235 since the start of ground fighting on Oct. 27.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli attack has killed at least 28,663 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
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 stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling this January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Despite international outcry, Israel plans a ground invasion of Rafah, which holds about 1.4 million refugees. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, "We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action in Rafah."
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul