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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on June 22 that an Israeli soldier was killed earlier in the day during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip.
The slain soldier, named as Sergeant First Class (reserved) Malkia Gross, was serving in the ranks of the 205th “Iron Fist” Reserve Armored Brigade’s 9212th Battalion. The circumstances of his death were being probed, the IDF said, without elaborating.
His death brought the toll of slain Israeli troops in ground operations in Gaza and along its border to 315. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip. More than 1,940 others have been reportedly wounded, so far.
The IDF faced fierce resistance from the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian factions in the southern Gaza area of Rafah and other parts of the Strip in recent days.
Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, released on June 22 video footage showing a recent ambush in the in Rafah’s Sheborah refugee camp, during which two Merkava Mk 4M main battle tanks and two Eitan is an armored fighting vehicles of the IDF were hit by rocket-propelled grenades.
On the same day, the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released footage showing a mortar attack on engineering and armored vehicles of the IDF at the Abu Oreiban military site near Gaza City in the northern part of the Strip. Several vehicles were also hit during the attack.
While the IDF is struggling to defeat Gaza factions, it continues to kill dozens of Palestinian civilians in the Strip without providing any real explanation.
At least 42 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City on June 22, according to the director of the Hamas-run government media office.
One Israeli strike on houses in the al-Shati refugee camp killed 24 people, Ismail al-Thawabta told Reuters. Another 18 Palestinians were killed in a strike on houses in the al-Tuffah neighborhood, according to the official.
Videos posted to social networks showed Palestinians searching for victims amid the destroyed houses in the streets of al-Shati and al-Tuffah. The footage showed debris, children covered in dust and the bodies of others who were apparently killed.
The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 37,550 with nearly 90,000 others wounded. Still, Israel appears to be determined to continue its war on the population of the Strip, which is being viewed internationally more and more as an attempt at genocide.
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