TEL AVIV: The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in a single attack in southern Gaza on Tuesday, the military’s deadliest day in the territory since it broke a ceasefire with Hamas in March.

A lieutenant, three staff sergeants and three sergeants, members of a combat engineering battalion, were killed when an explosive device planted on the armoured vehicle they were travelling in ignited a fire, the military said on Wednesday.

The latest deaths are likely to increase public pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-long war, a move strongly opposed by hardline members of his right-wing ruling coalition.

Public support for Netanyahu collapsed after the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas rain on southern Israel from Gaza, which exposed Israel to its deadliest security failure. But his standing has been boosted by his surprise decision to strike Iran a campaign widely viewed as dealing a significant blow to Israel’s longtime adversary.

Six Palestinian aid seekers among 20 who lost their lives to Israeli fire

Attention has shifted back to Gaza following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a truce between Israel and Iran that came into effect on Tuesday and continues to hold.

Moshe Gafne, a lawmaker from an ultra-Orthodox party within Netanyahu’s coalition government, on Wednesday publicly questioned why Israel was still locked in the war in Gaza. “This is a very sad day, with seven soldiers killed in Gaza … I still don’t understand why we are fighting there. To what end?” he told a parliamentary committee.

Hamas’ military wing confirmed that it had carried out the deadly attack in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday. It said its fighters had also fired an anti-tank missile at another vehicle that came to help.

The war in Gaza has isolated Israel from many of its international partners critical of the military campaign. During the 12 days Israel was fighting Iran, more than 800 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by the Israeli military, including at least 30, among them a journalist, on Wednesday, according to local health officials.

Israel kills 20 Palestinians

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, including six who were waiting to collect food aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites came after the United Nations had condemned the “weaponisation of food” in the Gaza Strip, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed and 30 others wounded “following Israeli fire targeting thousands of civilians waiting for aid” in an area of central Gaza where Palestinians have gathered each night in the hope of collecting food rations. Bassal said the crowd was hit by Israeli “bullets and tank shells”.

Pressure grew Tuesday on the privately run aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which was brought into the Palestinian territory at the end of May to replace United Nations agencies.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, called the US- and Israeli-backed system an “abomination” that has put Palestinians’ lives at risk, while a spokesman for the UN human rights office condemned the “weaponisation of food” in the territory.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2025