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Three Israeli soldiers were killed during fighting in the Gaza Strip on May 22, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced.
Two of the slain soldiers were from the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, while the third was serving in the ranks of the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit.
The Yehuda Battalion soldiers were killed in a Hamas sniper attack in the city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, the IDF said, adding that another soldier from the same unit was seriously wounded in the incident. Video footage of the attack was released by Hamas’ military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Meanwhile, the Yahalom unit soldier was killed by an explosive device in a building in northern Gaza. The IDF said another soldier of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion and a Yahalom reservist were also seriously wounded in the same blast.
Their deaths brought the toll of slain Israeli troops in the IDF’s ground operations in Gaza and along the border to 286. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip. More than 1,500 others have been wounded in the operations so far.
Recent clashes in northern Gaza were not limited to Beit Hanoun. The al-Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released footage showing a mortar attack on gatherings of the IDF on Mount al-Kachif to the east of the Jabaliya refugee camp.
And in the southern part of the Strip, there were reports of additional advance by Israeli troops. The IDF said that it had deployed an additional battalion to the area of Rafah, as it began ground operating in the city’s Brazil and Shaboura neighborhoods, following “information on terror targets in the area.”
The Nahal Brigade joined the 162nd Division which has been operating in Rafah since earlier this month. Nahal was the fifth IDF brigade to be operating in the city in southern Gaza, after the 401st, Givati, Commando and Negev brigades.
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and al-Quds Brigades released videos showing attacks on vehicles of the IDF in Rafah’s Brazil neighborhood and Salah al-Din Gate as well as a Skylark reconnaissance drone that was shot down over the area.
It’s worth noting that the Israeli war on Gaza has so far claimed the lives of 35,709 Palestinians and left nearly 80,000 others wounded, according to the latest update by the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip. Most of the victims were women and children.
In addition to the high number of casualties, the Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the Strip’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations.
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