JERUSALEM: Israelis on Tuesday mourned and sought answers over the army’s biggest single-day losses since ground operations in Gaza started amid growing pressure on the government to end the war.
Twenty-one of the 24 troops killed on Monday were reservists slain “when a squad of terrorists surprised the force” with fire from a rocket-propelled grenade, according to military spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The army said the grenade struck a tank and two buildings they were trying to blow up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation was launched into the “disaster” and that Israel “must learn the necessary lessons”.
Over 200 people attended the funeral of one of the reservists, Hadar Kapeluk, whose coffin was draped with an Israeli flag, at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
Hagari told a news conference later: “The price of the war is heavy and painful.”
Israela Oron, of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, believed the mounting toll of soldiers killed — now 221 — since Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza strip will heap pressure on Israeli government.
“Everybody is mourning the soldiers… people will demand clear answers about the purpose and the goal of this operation in Gaza.”
Hagari described the urban combat landscape as “very complex” but said troops “eliminated in the past day over 100 terrorists in the west of Khan Yunis”.
UN agencies and aid groups have cautioned about the growing threat of disease and famine in Gaza, where an estimated 1.7 million people have been displaced.
Gaza is “slipping every day into a much more catastrophic situation”, said senior Middle East spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, Abeer Etefa.
The territory has “the largest concentration of people in what looks like famine-like conditions anywhere in the world”, she further said.
Hopes for hostage deal
Netanyahu’s pledge to destroy Hamas is increasingly seen in the cabinet as incompatible with the return of the hostages, experts say.
A week-long ceasefire in November saw the release of 105 hostages, including Israelis, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
US news site Axios reported on Monday that Israel had proposed a new deal to Hamas through Qatari and Egyptian mediators to free all hostages within two months.
Citing unnamed Israeli officials, the report said the proposed deal would be implemented in several phases and would include the release of an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.
Qatar’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the ongoing talks and said many media reports “are either missing elements or completely false”.
US Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk was in the region for meetings aimed at securing a new hostage exchange deal, the White House said.
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP that a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to meet with Egypt’s intelligence chief to discuss new ceasefire proposals.
It comes as Netanyahu has come under increased fire for remarks rejecting Palestinian “sovereignty”, with UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday calling the rejection of a two-state solution “unacceptable”.
