Military: Four Israeli soldiers killed in house explosion in Rafah

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that four soldiers were killed in fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip the previous day, more than eight months after the start of the brutal war in the enclave.

The soldiers were “killed in fighting in the south of the Gaza Strip” on Monday, the military said in a statement, without giving further details about the circumstances of their deaths.

Israeli public broadcaster Can said the soldiers were killed in an explosion in a building in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, which has been the target of a brutal military offensive since May 7 in defiance of an International Court of Justice ruling calling for a halt to all attacks.

On Monday evening, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said its fighters had booby-trapped a building in the Shabura refugee camp in Rafah.

“The Qassam Mujahideen succeeded in detonating a booby-trapped house in which a Zionist force was holed up, killing or wounding members of the (Israeli) force,” the group said in a statement.

The Times of Israel reported that seven soldiers were also injured in the explosion, five of them seriously.

According to the Israeli military, 298 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the Gaza war began on October 7.

Foreign governments, including US ally Israel, had opposed the operation in Rafah out of concern for the safety of thousands of Palestinians seeking refuge in the city. Despite the precarious conditions throughout the enclave, well over a million people have now fled and sought refuge wherever they can.

At least 37,164 people have died in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military retaliation, most of them women and children. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble.