In one of the harshest blows it has suffered since the start of the ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army announced on Wednesday morning the killing of 10 of its soldiers, most of them officers, in an ambush.

In detail, the official Israeli broadcasting authority "Kan" mentioned that the soldiers and officers who were killed belonged to the 13th Battalion in the "Golani Brigade".

At the top of the list of the deceased was the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Greenberg.

The authority stated that the soldiers and officers stormed a building to search it during a field sweep operation in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, and once they were inside, Palestinian fighters opened fire on them and also detonated an explosive device. Fierce fighting broke out between the two sides, and meanwhile, the Israeli force split into two groups.

A third force rushed to the place for help and rescue, and then the Palestinians detonated another device, resulting in casualties and injuries among the Israeli soldiers.

Later, the Palestinian fighters detonated a third device at the Israeli force.

As a result, the soldiers who remained alive called for air support, and helicopters worked to evacuate the injured and the bodies of the dead from the site.

The Israeli army is investigating whether the attack was related to the presence of a tunnel in the building, which the Palestinians used in the ambush.

On the other hand, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and other military wings of factions did not announce carrying out this attack, although they regularly announce similar attacks involving targeting Israeli soldiers when they are entrenched in buildings in the Strip since the start of the ground war.

It is worth noting that the Israeli announcement was regarding the northern Gaza Strip and not its southern part, as the army said a few days ago that its operations there were nearing completion.

The Israeli army has regularly reported the deaths of a limited number of soldiers in batches ranging between 2 and 3 on most days of the war, but in recent days the number increased to 4 or 5 soldiers.

The only time the army announced the killing of 9 soldiers at once was on the first of last November, when it said all the soldiers were killed in an anti-tank missile fired at the armored "Namer" vehicle.

With the death of the ten soldiers, the death toll of the Israeli army rises to 442 soldiers since the beginning of the war on October 7, including 113 soldiers since the start of the ground offensive in late October.