Israel’s black day – this is how the government justifies itself to the families of the victims Lufthansa registers higher domestic demand due to railway strike

Israel is in shock: On Monday, 24 soldiers were killed within a few hours during three separate combat operations in the Gaza Strip. It was the highest death toll for the Israeli army since the counter-attack on Hamas targets began after the October 7 terrorist attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the population on Tuesday morning with a message of mourning: “Yesterday we experienced one of the most difficult days since the start of the war.” The army has started an investigation into how the ‘disaster’ could have occurred. “We must learn the necessary lessons from this and do everything we can to protect the lives of our soldiers,” Netanyahu emphasized in his video address. Nevertheless, Israel will continue to fight “until absolute victory.”

Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant expressed his condolences to the affected families, adding:

However, critical voices confronted the Israeli government with the question of whether military incompetence had led to the deaths of the majority of soldiers. Left-wing radical MP Ofer Cassif called for immediate new elections over the alleged failure of the government.

Collapsed building buries soldiers

The most serious incident, in which 19 Israeli soldiers were buried and killed under the rubble of two collapsing buildings, occurred in the coastal town of Al-Mawasi, on the southern outskirts of Khan Yunis. Apparently Israeli pioneers had prepared the housing complex for demolition and therefore piled previously collected land mines in it. When a building was hit by a Hamas anti-tank missile, a catastrophic explosion and collapse occurred.

The list of names published by Israeli newspapers shows that the slain soldiers were reservists between the ages of 22 and 40, including several officers and mainly family men. The ‘Jerusalem Post’ wrote on Tuesday that it is part of the ongoing investigation into whether the experienced soldiers broke the rules when they brought the landmines into the houses.

Pro-Palestinian bloggers cheered the explosion on social media, seeing the incident as evidence that the Israeli army was deliberately destroying civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip. Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari called the aim of the botched operation “to remove terrorist infrastructure.”

With the soldiers killed on Monday, the Israeli army’s official death toll in the Gaza war rose to 556 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Near the collapsed buildings, two more soldiers were killed when their tank was also hit by a rocket fired by a Hamas terrorist.

In the third fatal combat operation, three paratroop officers from the elite battalion 202 died, being shot in an ambush in Khan Yunis. Separately, the Israeli military reported on Tuesday afternoon that Khan Yunis was now completely surrounded. “Dozens of Hamas terrorists were eliminated” in the battle. The Palestinian Red Crescent aid organization, in turn, spoke of dozens of deaths and injuries among the Palestinian civilian population.

Reports about peace plans fade into the background

The terrible reports of losses for Israel from the Gaza Strip drowned out all previous reports in the country about the possibility of a new ceasefire. On Monday evening, the news portal ‘Axios’ reported that Israel had made an offer for a two-month ceasefire to mediators from Egypt and Qatar. “Axios” quoted anonymous Israeli officials.

According to this article, the Israeli army would withdraw from the population centers in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the approximately 130 remaining hostages. The Wall Street Journal wrote almost simultaneously that five Arab countries were about to draw up a peace plan in which Saudi Arabia would offer to recognize Israel in exchange for the creation of a Palestinian state.

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk, Israeli historian Moshe Zimmermann called Jerusalem’s alleged willingness for a new ceasefire merely a diversionary tactic to delay the other side’s peace offers. At its core, it is all about recognizing a two-state solution, which the Netanyahu government continues to strictly reject. (aargauerzeitung.ch)