JERUSALEM/GAZA CITY (Agence France-Presse) — Four soldiers died in combat in the north of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Saturday, more than 15 months into its war with Hamas militants.
The deaths brought to 403 the number of soldiers killed in the Palestinian territory since Israel launched its ground offensive in retaliation for Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack.
The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others have designated Hamas as a terror organization.
An officer and a reservist soldier were "seriously wounded" during the same incident and were taken to a hospital, the military said in a statement.
The military said Saturday it had killed three militants in a ground operation near Jabalia in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have been waging an intense offensive since early October, saying it aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Gaza's civil defense agency said it counted eight people killed near Jabalia, including two children in an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter. Defense agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed "thousands of displaced people."
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
It said the air force "conducted a precise strike on terrorists in a command-and-control center" that had previously served as the Halwa school in Jabaliya.
It said it targeted the premises because "the school had been used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute attacks."
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for more than 14 months.
At least 46,537 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians. About 250 people were taken hostage, with about 100 still being held in Gaza, though at least one-third of them are believed to be dead.
On Saturday, Hamas responded to Sharon Cunio, who had directly addressed the group in Arabic in a video Friday. She asked for a sign that her husband, David, was still alive, more than 450 days after he was taken to the Palestinian territory.
In its response, Hamas said the fate of her husband depends on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Netanyahu has not decided yet. Time is running out," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said.
Stop-start negotiations have been underway seeking an end to the devastating war and the release of the remaining hostages, with the latest round starting last weekend in Qatar.
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