![Soldiers stand near an Israeli flag as they receive a briefing near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 5, 2024 in Southern Israel, Israel. [Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2187757683-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
The Israeli army confirmed on Wednesday that seven of its soldiers had been killed during combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip.
In an official statement, the army added that another soldier was seriously injured on Tuesday in a separate incident in the same area.
According to the statement, the soldiers aged between 19 and 21 belong to the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, a unit tasked primarily with destroying infrastructure.
On Tuesday evening, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said it had killed and injured several Israeli soldiers in a complex ambush targeting an Israeli force inside a house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
In a post on Telegram, the group stated: “Al-Qassam fighters successfully carried out a complex ambush targeting a Zionist force that had fortified itself inside a house, using a Yassin 105 shell and an RPG shell, in the Old Licensing Area south of Khan Younis.”
The group added that its fighters opened fire on the house with machine guns, resulting in both fatalities and injuries among the Israeli force.
It further claimed that an Israeli Merkava tank in the same area was hit with a Shawaza explosive device and a Yassin 105 shell.
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