A weekend of combat in Gaza kills 14 Israeli soldiers as public support for the war is tested

Mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Staff sergeant David Bogdanovskyi, who was killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli army's ongoing ground operation amid the conflict with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at a cemetery in Haifa, Israel, December 24, 2023. (Reuters)

• Soldiers’ deaths are a sensitive topic in Israel, which has compulsory military service for most Jews

TEL AVIV: Fourteen Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in Gaza over the weekend, the Israeli military said Sunday, in some of the bloodiest days of battle since the ground offensive began and a sign that Hamas is still putting up a fight despite weeks of brutal war.
The mounting death toll among Israeli troops is likely an important factor in Israeli support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage. The war has devastated parts of Gaza , killed roughly 20,400 Palestinians and displaced nearly 85 percent of the besieged territory’s 2.3 million people.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said 166 people were killed in the coastal enclave over the past day.
Israelis still stand behind the country’s stated goals of crushing Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 captives. That support has stayed mostly steady despite rising international pressure against Israel’s offensive and the soaring death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.
But the growing number of dead soldiers — 153 since the ground offensive began — could undermine that support. Soldiers’ deaths are a sensitive topic in Israel, which has compulsory military service for most Jews. The names of fallen soldiers are announced at the top of hourly newscasts.
As Christmas Eve fell, smoke still rose over Gaza from the fighting while Bethlehem in the West Bank was hushed, its holiday celebrations called off.
Hamas exacts a price
The 14 Israeli soldiers killed on Friday and Saturday died in central and southern Gaza, a sign of how Hamas still puts up tough resistance even as Israel claims to have dealt a serious blow to the militant group.
According to Israeli Army Radio, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by an anti-tank missile. The others were killed in separate fighting. Another soldier was killed in northern Israel by fire from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has kept up low-level fighting, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
“The war exacts a very heavy price from us but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday.
There has been widespread anger against Netanyahu’s government, which many criticize for failing to protect civilians on Oct. 7 and promoting policies that allowed Hamas to gain strength over the years. Netanyahu has avoided accepting responsibility for the military and policy failures.
On Saturday night, thousands of people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, chanting “Bibi, Bibi, we don’t want you anymore,” referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Inside Gaza
Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than two-thirds of the 20,000 Palestinians killed have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Sunday morning that a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in an Israeli drone attack while inside Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where Israel’s military believes Hamas leaders are hiding.
An Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt. At least two men were killed, according to Associated Press journalists in the hospital where the bodies were taken.
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment and gunfire Sunday morning in Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel had claimed to control. Hamas’ military arm said its fighters shelled Israeli troops in Jabaliya and Jabaliya refugee camp.
“Sounds of explosions and gunfire never stopped,” said Assad Radwan, a fisherman from Jabaliya.
Israel has come under heavy international criticism for the civilian death toll but it blames Hamas, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.
Israel also faces allegations of mistreating Palestinian men and teenage boys detained in homes, shelters, hospitals and elsewhere during the offensive. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants are quickly released.
Speaking to the AP from a hospital bed in Rafah after his release, Khamis Al-Burdainy of Gaza City said Israeli forces detained him after tanks and bulldozers partly destroyed his home. He said men were handcuffed and blindfolded.
“We didn’t sleep. We didn’t get food and water,” he said, crying and covering his face.
Another released detainee, Mohammed Salem, from the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, said Israeli troops beat them. “We were humiliated,” he said. “A female soldier would come and beat an old man, aged 72 years old.”
Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence, and says it is dismantling Hamas’ vast tunnel network and killing off top commanders — an operation that leaders have said could take months.
International pressure 
The United Nations Security Council has passed a watered-down resolution calling for the speedy delivery of humanitarian aid for hungry and desperate Palestinians and the release of all the hostages, but not for a cease-fire.
But it was not immediately clear how and when aid deliveries, far below the daily average of 500 before the war, would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 93 aid trucks entered Gaza through Rafah on Saturday.
Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, reiterated UN calls for a humanitarian cease-fire.
“For aid to reach people in need, hostages to be released, more displacement to be avoided and above all the devastating loss of lives to stop a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza is the only way forward,” he wrote on X.
Israel’s allies in Europe have stepped up calls for a stop to the fighting. But the US, Israel’s top ally, appeared to remain firmly behind Israel despite intensifying its calls for greater protection for civilians.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday, a day after Washington shielded Israel from a harsher UN resolution. Biden said he did not ask for a cease-fire, while Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.”