TEL AVIV—The Israeli military said at least 21 soldiers were killed when two buildings rigged for demolition in Gaza collapsed after militants fired at a nearby tank, by far the deadliest incident for Israel in the enclave since the start of the war.
The blast from the rocket-propelled grenade on Monday likely caused the explosives to detonate, collapsing the buildings, the military said.
The Israeli soldiers were operating inside Gaza around 600 yards west of the Israeli town of Kibbutz Kissufim, the Israeli military said, as part of efforts to create a buffer zone, Israel’s Army Radio reported. The Biden administration has repeatedly spoken out against any action that could reduce the size of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s rescue efforts went late into the night and were completed.
The incident raised the death toll of Israeli soldiers in Gaza to at least 221 and represented around 10% of the total number of Israeli troops killed since the war began. It also comes at a time when Israel is paring down its presence in Gaza.
Tens of thousands of Israelis from communities along the border with Gaza have been displaced from their homes since Oct. 7, when thousands of militants from Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
The war that followed has taken a devastating toll on Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, most of whom are now internally displaced and are suffering shortages of food, medicines and clean water, among other basic goods. More than 25,000 people, the majority women and children, have been killed in Gaza since the start of hostilities, according to Palestinian authorities. Those figures don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
International pressure is mounting on Israel to alter its conduct of the war or wrap it up altogether.
The buildings that collapsed Monday were being detonated as part of “the mission to create the security conditions for the return of the residents of the South [of Israel]” said Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
The safe return of the evacuees to their homes in southern Israel is considered a key Israeli goal.
Hagari said the military is continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
The military has published the names of 17 of the soldiers who died on Monday and is set to release the remainder in the coming hours.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has in recent days begun transitioning to a less intensive phase, with most of the active fighting now focused in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Hamas’s leadership is believed to be hiding out in underground tunnels.
Israeli officials say that the end of the war is still a long way off.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that lessons needed to be learned from the collapse of the buildings, and vowed to continue the war “until complete victory.”
Anat Peled contributed to this article.
Write to Dov Lieber at [email protected]
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