TEL AVIV, Israel (news agencies) — Fourteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday, in some of the bloodiest days of battle since the start of the ground offensive and a sign that Hamas is still putting up a fight despite weeks of brutal war.
The mounting death toll among Israeli troops is likely to play an important factor in Israeli public support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage. The war has devastated parts of the Gaza Strip, killed roughly 20,400 Palestinians and displaced nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said 166 people were killed in the coastal enclave over the past day.
Israelis still stand firmly behind the country’s stated goals of crushing Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 captives. That support has stayed mostly steady despite rising international pressure against Israel’s offensive and the soaring death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.
But the growing number of dead soldiers could undermine that support. Soldiers’ deaths are a sensitive and emotional topic in Israel, a country with compulsory military service for most Jews.
The names of fallen soldiers are announced at the top of hourly newscasts, and in a small country of about 9 million people, virtually every family knows a relative, friend or co-worker who has lost a family member in war.
The 14 Israeli soldiers killed on Friday and Saturday died in battles in central and southern Gaza, an indication of how Hamas is still putting up tough resistance against advancing Israeli troops, even as Israel claims to have dealt a serious blow to the militant group.
According to Israeli Army Radio, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by an anti-tank missile. The others were killed in separate, sporadic fighting.
Another soldier was killed in northern Israel by fire from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has kept up low-level fighting with Israel since the war with Hamas erupted, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
Their deaths bring the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the ground offensive began to 153.
“The war exacts a very heavy price from us but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet Sunday. “We are continuing with all the force, until the end, until victory, until we reach all our goals.”
Even if Israelis have been supportive of the war effort, there has been widespread anger against Netanyahu’s government, which many criticize for failing to protect civilians on Oct. 7 and promoting policies that allowed Hamas to gain strength over the years.
On Saturday night, thousands of people demonstrated in pouring rain in Tel Aviv, chanting “Bibi, Bibi, we don’t want you anymore,” referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Netanyahu has avoided accepting responsibility for the military and policy failures leading up to Oct. 7, saying he would answer tough questions once the fighting is over.
On Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said forces were expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza and troops were fighting in “complex areas” in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, where Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding.
Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history and has claimed a staggering toll on Palestinian civilians. More than two-thirds of the 20,000 killed were women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday morning that a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by an Israeli drone attack while inside the building of al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis. It provided no further details.
An Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah, on Gaza’s borders with Egypt. At least two men were killed and their bodies taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, according to media journalists in the hospital.
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment and gunfire Sunday morning in the town of Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel had previously claimed to control. Sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed across the town with Israeli warplanes flying over the area, they said. Hamas’ military arm said its fighters shelled Israeli troops in Jabaliya and Jabaliya refugee camp.
“There are bombings and fierce battles during the night,” said Assad Radwan, a Palestinian fisherman from Jabaliya. “Sounds of explosions and gunfire never stopped.”
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