JERUSALEM: Israel’s military announced Friday the deaths of four soldiers in Gaza, saying it needed thousands more troops to press its offensive, just as the premier’s coalition faces the prospect of collapse over ultra-Orthodox conscription.
News of the soldiers’ deaths came as Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 38 killed Friday in Israeli attacks across the territory, where Palestinians observed the Eid Al-Adha holiday under the shadow of war for a second consecutive year.
Military spokesman Effie Defrin said the four soldiers were killed as they “were operating in the Khan Yunis area, in a compound belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization.”
“Around six in the morning, an explosive device detonated, causing part of the structure to collapse,” he said, adding that five other soldiers were wounded, one of them severely.
The deaths bring to 429 the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive in late October 2023.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended his condolences to the soldiers’ families, saying they “sacrificed their lives for the safety of all of us.”
Israel recently stepped up its Gaza campaign in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack sparked the war.
Asked by a reporter about the issue of ultra-Orthodox conscription, which has emerged as a thorn in the side of Netanyahu’s government, Defrin said “this is the need of the moment, an operational necessity.”
The army was short around 10,000 soldiers, he added, including about 6,000 in combat roles, adding that “tens of thousands more notices will be issued in the upcoming draft cycle.”
The conscription issue has threatened to sink Netanyahu’s government, with ultra-Orthodox religious parties warning they will pull out of his coalition if Netanyahu fails to make good on a promise to codify the military exemption for their community in law.
At the same time, much of the public has turned against the exemption amid the increasing strain put on reservists’ families by repeated call-up orders during the war.
In April, a military representative told a parliamentary committee that of 18,000 draft notices sent to ultra-Orthodox individuals, only 232 received a positive response.
Netanyahu’s office announced shortly after 1:00 am on Friday that he had met with a lawmaker from his Likud party who has recently pushed for a bill aimed at increasing the ultra-Orthodox enlistment and toughening sanctions on those who refuse.
The premier’s office said “significant progress was made,” with “unresolved issues” to be ironed out later.
Netanyahu also faced scrutiny after he admitted to supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes Hamas.
Knesset member and ex-defense minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu’s direction, was “giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons.”
The European Council on Foreign Relations think tank describes the group a “criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks.”
The humanitarian situation in Gaza, meanwhile, has reached dire lows, with residents enduring severe shortages of food and other essentials, even after a more than two-month Israeli blockade on aid was recently eased.
The shortages have made it all but impossible for many Gazans to celebrate Eid Al-Adha, which fell on Friday and is traditionally marked with huge family meals and gifts of new clothes.
Suad Al-Qarra told AFP from Nasser Hospital on Friday that her son never got a chance to wear his new clothes.
“He went to get dressed and there was an explosion,” she said, her soft voice breaking. “I took him to the hospital and (they) found him dead.”
“They took the children from us,” she continued. “I bought him Eid clothes yesterday and he didn’t wear them, instead he wears a white shroud.”
In the Muslim faith, Eid commemorates the sacrifice Ibrahim — known to Christians and Jews as Abraham — was about to make by killing his son, before the angel Gabriel intervened and offered him a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s strikes.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 4,402 people have been killed since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 after a brief truce, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,677, mostly civilians.
