Gaza: Hamas fighters kill eight Israeli soldiers in Rafah ambush
The Israeli military said eight soldiers were killed in southern Gaza Saturday "in operational activity", while Israeli media reported the troops died in the city of Rafah when an armoured vehicle they were in exploded.
The military said in a statement that Captain Wassem Mahmud, 23, and seven other soldiers "fell during operational activity in southern Gaza", in one of the deadliest incidents involving the military in the more than eight months of war in the Palestinian territory.
"Their families have been notified," the statement added.
Earlier the armed wing of Hamas said it had killed and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers in an ambush in the southern city of Rafah, which included a strike on an armoured personnel carrier.
In a statement on Telegram, the Qassam Brigades said: "On the morning of Arafah Day, our fighters carried out a complex ambush against enemy vehicles invading the area of the Saudi neighbourhood in Tal al-Sultan, west of the city of Rafah. A D9 military bulldozer was targeted with an al-Yassin 105 anti-armour missile, which led to it igniting and leaving the bulldozer crew dead and wounded.
"Immediately upon the arrival of the rescue force, a Namer armoured vehicle was targeted with anal-Yassin 105 missile, which led to its destruction and the killing of all its members."
The latest fatalities take the Israeli military's toll to 306 since Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza on 27 October last year.
Meanwhile, the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since 7 October has risen to at least 37,296 people, with another 85,197 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
More than eight months into the Israeli offensive, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
