The country's military says 21 Israeli soldiers have been killed in a deadly attack in Gaza. This is a serious setback that could lead to increasing calls for a ceasefire.
Soldiers were preparing explosives to demolish two buildings in central Gaza on Monday when a terror fighter fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby, according to Israeli media reports.
The explosion triggered landmines, causing the buildings on top of the soldiers to collapse and 21 people to die – the Israeli military's single largest loss since the start of the war.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said it had been a “difficult and painful morning” but Israel was determined to move on.
“This war will determine Israel’s future for decades to come, and the overthrow of soldiers is a prerequisite to achieving the war’s goals,” he wrote on X.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that the IDF was investigating “the details of the event and the reasons for the explosion.”
“We worked until the last hours to find the victims,” Hagari added, noting the difficulty of recovering bodies buried under the rubble. “Our reservists sacrificed what they held most dear so that we could all live here in complete safety.”
The country's military says 21 Israeli soldiers have been killed in a deadly attack in the Gaza Strip. Pictured: Smoke rises over Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning
According to an IDF-run website that publishes details of fallen soldiers, those killed in the attack were members of the 261st Infantry Brigade – a reserve unit within the Israeli army's Gaza Division – and the 205th Division – a reserve tank brigade.
The ages of the people identified so far were between 23 and 35 years.
The incident occurred around 4 p.m. in al-Muasi in central Gaza, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The deadly attack came as Israeli forces advanced deeper west of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza.
The operation reportedly included storming a hospital and arresting medical staff, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra told Portal.
Previously, the IDF said on Monday that three soldiers had been killed in another incident in the southern Gaza Strip, bringing the total IDF death toll for the day to 24.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep going until Israel crushes the ruling terror group Hamas and gains the freedom of more than 100 hostages held in Gaza.
Israelis are increasingly divided over whether both are possible.
Families of the hostages and many of their supporters have called on Israel for a ceasefire agreement, saying time is running out to bring the hostages home alive.
On Monday, dozens of relatives of hostages stormed a parliamentary committee meeting and demanded an agreement to release their relatives.
Monday's high death toll could give new impetus to calls for Israel to pause or even abandon the offensive.
The large number of Israeli casualties has put pressure on the Israeli government to end previous military operations.
News of the attack came as a senior Egyptian official said Israel had proposed a two-month ceasefire that would see the hostages released.
In return, Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and senior Hamas leaders in Gaza would be released and resettled in other countries.
The official, who was not authorized to brief the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas rejected the proposal and insisted no more hostages would be released until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza .
Israeli soldiers walk alongside military vehicles and ambulances as conflict continues between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas near the fence on Israel's border with Gaza, Israel, January 22
The Israeli government declined to comment on the talks when contacted by the Associated Press, the news agency reported.
The official said Egypt and Qatar, which have negotiated deals between Israel and Hamas in the past, were developing a multi-stage proposal to close the gaps.
Israel launched the offensive after Hamas' cross-border attack on October 7 that killed over 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction, displacing an estimated 85% of Gaza's population and leaving more than 25,000 Palestinians dead, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled territory.
The United Nations and international aid groups say the fighting has sparked a humanitarian disaster, with a quarter of the region's 2.3 million people at risk of starvation.
The war has also heightened regional tensions as Iranian-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen attack U.S. and Israeli targets in support of the Palestinians.
The US and Britain launched another wave of attacks on Monday against Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have targeted international shipping in the Red Sea in what they portray as a blockade of Israel.
The growing death toll and dire humanitarian situation have led to increasing international pressure on Israel to scale back the offensive and agree to a path to creating a post-war Palestinian state.
The United States, which has provided important military assistance, has joined these calls.
But Netanyahu, whose popularity has plummeted since October 7 and whose ruling coalition is beholden to far-right parties, has rejected both demands.
Instead, he said Israel must expand its operations and eventually take over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have fled other areas are crammed into overcrowded U.N. shelters and sprawling tent camps.
This sparked an angry protest from the Egyptian government, which rejected Israeli allegations that Hamas was smuggling weapons across the heavily guarded border.
Flares fired by Israeli forces can be seen across the sky in various parts of the city of Deir Al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli army air, sea and land attacks on the Gaza Strip continue uninterrupted on January 22
Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's state information service, said on Monday that any Israeli attempt to occupy the border area would “lead to a serious threat” to relations between the two countries, which signed a landmark peace treaty over four decades ago.
Egypt is also deeply concerned about a possible influx of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai Peninsula.
Rashwan said Egypt is in full control of the border after taking a series of measures in recent years, including creating a 5-kilometer buffer zone and building barriers above and below ground.
Egypt “is capable of defending its interests and sovereignty over its land and borders and will not pawn it in the hands of a group of extremist Israeli leaders who seek to plunge the region into a state of conflict and instability.” said Rashwan.