At least two Zionist soldiers were killed and four others wounded during clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in the southern Gaza Strip, the occupation military said on Friday.
The two soldiers were identified as Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach, 20, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 605th Battalion, from Zikhron Ya’akov, and Staff Sgt. Yam Frid, 21, of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Sal’it.
The two deaths brought to 856 the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the outbreak of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023 to 856, according to military figures released by the occupation army.
On Thursday, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that their fighters had targeted an Israeli engineering unit consisting of 12 soldiers as they were preparing to carry out a demolition operation inside a house near the Fida’i Junction in the al-Tannour neighborhood, east of Rafah city in southern Gaza.
The Brigades stated that its fighters struck the unit with two anti-personnel and anti-armor shells, leading to the explosion of the house and causing casualties among the Israeli force, with soldiers either killed or wounded.
The group added that following the attack, Israeli helicopters were observed landing to evacuate the dead and wounded.
The Brigades also reported that its fighters engaged in fierce, point-blank-range combat with Israeli soldiers and military vehicles in the al-Jeneina neighborhood, also in eastern Rafah.
