'We will continue to fight,' vows IDF chief following incident in which 21 Israeli soldiers killed

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi visited the site where 21 IDF soldiers were killed on Monday during a single mission in the Gaza Strip.

“The State of Israel woke up this morning to a difficult and painful announcement: 21 dead,” Halevi said on Tuesday.

“The best sons of this country, who volunteered to protect the home and paid the most expensive price,” Halevi said. The IDF chief offered his condolences to the families of the fallen IDF soldiers.

The soldiers were killed in the al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza, close to the Israeli border, while preparing the area for demolition. Hamas terrorists reportedly fired one RPG that hit an Israeli tank and killed two IDF soldiers. The other 19 IDF soldiers died when a second RPG hit a pre-rigged building that exploded. Several other soldiers were injured in the lethal blast.

It is the largest IDF death toll in a single day to date, and brings the total number of soldiers to have died inside Gaza to 221 since the ground operations began.

Halevi recognized the magnitude of the tragedy but stressed that the Jewish state’s war against Hamas is essential in securing Israel’s very existence.

“Today we feel the great and painful cost of war, but the one we are fighting now is necessary and just like no other. We will continue to fight for our clear right to live here in safety,” the IDF chief vowed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also admitted that Monday was one of the most painful days during Israel’s ongoing counter-terrorism operation in Gaza, but emphasized that so many soldiers’ lives would not be in vain, and that Israel would complete the job.

“While we bow our heads in memory of our fallen, we are not relenting – even for a moment – in striving for the goal that has no alternative – achieving total victory,” Netanyahu said.

In recent weeks, the IDF has dramatically reduced its presence in Gaza, with thousands of reserve troops being sent home to rejoin civilian life. At the same time, IDF soldiers in northern and central Gaza have gradually shifted from an offensive to a more defensive approach, after most terrorist operatives in the area have been either eliminated or fled south. This essentially makes IDF troops in those areas more static in their defensive positions, and potentially more vulnerable to RPGs and other weapons fired by remaining pockets of Hamas terrorists.

Most of the remaining Hamas forces are concentrated in the south, especially around the terrorist strongholds of Khan Younis and Rafah.

On Monday, the Israeli military’s 98th Division launched a major offensive against Hamas terrorists located in the strategically important western part of Khan Younis.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health claimed that 50 Gazans had been killed in the city, and another 100 injured, since Sunday. However, there is no independent source that can verify the numbers and it is currently unclear how many of them were terrorists operating in civilian clothes.

The IDF previously neutralized Hamas terror forces in the eastern and northern portions of Khan Younis. The Hamas battalion in western part of the town is considered to be one of the more crucial remaining sites still held by the terrorist group. At least some top Hamas leadership is believed to be hiding in tunnels below Khan Younis, holding Israeli hostages captive and using them as human shields.