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Ocho soldados israelíes muertos mientras se intensifican los combates en Gaza
Global
AFP
Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a blast in southern Gaza Saturday, the military said, in one of its heaviest losses of the war, as witnesses reported street battles between troops and Palestinian militants.
The military said the soldiers were killed when the Namer armoured vehicle they were travelling in exploded near Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, where troops are engaged in fierce street battles.
"There was a very serious damage to the vehicle and those in it, and a large explosion making it difficult to identify and locate the bodies," it said.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing that the blast was "apparently from an explosive device planted in the area or from the firing of an anti-tank missile".
Saturday's losses were among the heaviest for the military since it began its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27 and took its overall toll since then to 306 deaths.
In the single largest loss of life for the army, 21 soldiers were killed on January 22 when rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire hit a tank near two buildings they were preparing to blow up.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the soldiers who had lost their lives. "Our hearts are shattered before this terrible loss," he said in a statement.
"Despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war."
At the weekly protest in Tel Aviv against his government's handling of the war, protester Graciela Barchilon, 68, said she felt "a lot of anger and disappointment".
"I believe this government is not working and we have to go to elections now," she said.
In Rafah, witnesses reported clashes between militants and Israeli troops in the city's west, and artillery fire towards a refugee camp in the city centre. AFPTV images showed streets largely deserted.
The United Nations says about one million people have fled Rafah since early May, when Israel began ground operations in the city in pursuit of Hamas militants.
In Gaza City, in the north of the territory, the civil defence agency reported recovering 10 bodies from three separate homes hit by Israeli strikes.
- Lebanon border flare-up -
The Gaza war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,296 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Fears of the war spilling over into a broader Middle East conflict have been rekindled in recent days by an escalation of tit-for-tat violence between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
Hezbollah dijo que los intensos ataques desde el miércoles fueron represalias por el asesinato de uno de sus comandantes por parte de Israel.
Las fuerzas israelíes respondieron con bombardeos, dijeron los militares, y también anunciaron ataques aéreos contra la infraestructura de Hezbolá al otro lado de la frontera.
Los dos altos funcionarios de la ONU en el Líbano pidieron a todas las partes que cesen el fuego. "El peligro de que un error de cálculo conduzca a un conflicto repentino y más amplio es muy real", dijeron en una declaración conjunta.
- Plan de alto el fuego -
Durante un viaje a Oriente Medio esta semana para impulsar un plan de tregua en Gaza, el secretario de Estado estadounidense, Antony Blinken, dijo que "la mejor manera" de ayudar a resolver la violencia entre Hezbolá e Israel era "una resolución del conflicto en Gaza y un alto el fuego".
Eso no ha sucedido.
Hamás ha insistido en la retirada completa de las fuerzas israelíes de Gaza y un alto el fuego permanente, exigencias que Israel ha rechazado repetidamente.
Blinken ha dicho que Israel respalda el último plan, pero el primer ministro Benjamín Netanyahu, cuyos socios de coalición de extrema derecha se oponen firmemente a un alto el fuego, no lo ha respaldado públicamente.
En la única tregua de la guerra de Gaza, una semana en noviembre, se liberó a más de 100 rehenes, entre ellos israelíes a cambio de prisioneros palestinos.
El director ejecutivo adjunto del Programa Mundial de Alimentos, Carl Skau, dijo que "con la anarquía dentro de la Franja... y el conflicto activo", se ha vuelto "casi imposible entregar el nivel de ayuda que satisfaga las crecientes demandas sobre el terreno".
"Más que nada, la gente quiere que esta guerra termine", dijo después de una visita de dos días a Gaza.
El ejército estadounidense dijo que un muelle que construyó para ayudar a llevar ayuda a Gaza se trasladaría temporalmente a un puerto israelí para protegerlo de la esperada alta mar.
La plataforma había sido nuevamente unida a la costa de Gaza apenas una semana antes, después de los daños causados por la tormenta.
Los líderes del grupo G7 de economías avanzadas pidieron en una cumbre celebrada el viernes en Italia el "paso rápido y sin obstáculos de ayuda humanitaria para los civiles necesitados".
burs-it/kir/jsa
© Agencia France-Presse
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