Israel-Palestine: Ten Israeli soldiers, including senior colonel, killed in Gaza ambush

Ten Israeli soldiers, including a senior colonel who commanded a forward base of an elite infantry unit, were killed Tuesday in an ambush in northern Gaza, the army announced on Wednesday. 

Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the head of the Golani Brigade’s commander’s team, was killed on Tuesday in an ambush by Palestinian fighters in Gaza's Shejaiya neighbourhood, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.

Ben Basat is the most senior Israeli officer to be killed in Gaza since the ground invasion was launched in late October.

The Israeli army confirmed the deaths of eight other soldiers in northern Gaza, including a commander of the Golani regiment, two company commanders, a platoon commander, a company commander, and three combat soldiers. 

The operation is a major blow to the Israeli military's ground invasion of Gaza. Since the launch of the ground offensive in late October, 115 Israeli soldiers have been killed, while more than 300 soldiers were killed in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October.

Among Israel's casualties since the offensive started, 20 Israeli soldiers died from so-called friendly fire and other accidents, according to new data released by the Israeli army on Tuesday.

Most of these soldiers were killed due to mistaken identification in air strikes, tank shelling and gunfire, the army said.

The soldiers' deaths in Tuesday's ambush sparked an outpouring of reactions from senior Israeli politicians. 

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz called the fighting in Gaza a "second war of independence".

"Every one who falls is a scar on the entire State of Israel, and every such scar is a reminder of the heroism of our warriors, and of the need to be worthy as a society of their sacrifice," Gantz wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday.

'There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established between the Jordan [river] and the sea'

- Shlomo Karhi, Israeli minister

The news of the soldiers' deaths comes as National Security Council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, announced Wednesday that White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan plans to travel to Israel on Thursday and Friday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his war cabinet, and President Isaac Herzog to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza.

The announcement comes a day after US President Joe Biden told donors at a fundraising event on Tuesday that Israel is beginning to lose global support over its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, his strongest criticism yet of Israel's leadership.

Responding to Biden's comments, Israeli communications minister and member of Netanyahu's Likud party, Shlomo Karhi, wrote on X Tuesday: "There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established between the Jordan [river] and the sea.

"We will never go back to Oslo."

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that the Gaza death toll since the start of the war on 7 October has now reached 18,608 and that at least 50,594 have also been wounded in the same time frame. Most of the dead have been women and children. 

The ministry added that at least 296 Palestinian medics have been killed since the start of the war, at least 134 Unrwa staff have also been killed, along with 32 civil defence crew members and one World Health Organisation staff member. 

Meanwhile, a report from Al Jazeera on Wednesday stated that Palestinians sheltering at a school in Gaza were shot at “point-blank range” in “execution style”.

The video footage shows dead bodies lying on the floor of the school while survivors mourn their loss. 

Middle East Eye reached out to the Israeli Ministry of Defence for comment.

Palestinian medics raise concerns over 70 detained staff

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said on Wednesday that it is “gravely concerned” for the welfare of 70 medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza who were taken by Israeli forces to an undisclosed location on Wednesday.

“Two mothers were killed at the hospital on Monday when the maternity department was hit. Staff report that the hospital had been besieged by the military for several days before the army entered at noon yesterday,” it added.

According to MAP, 65 patients - including 12 children in intensive care and six babies in incubators - remain inside the hospital, as well as 45 medical staff. 

As of yesterday, 3,000 displaced people were also sheltering at the hospital.

Heavy rain doubles woes for displaced Palestinians

A downpour in Gaza late on Tuesday has worsened the conditions for internally displaced Palestinians taking shelter in schools and makeshift camps. 

"Heavy rains and winds overnight. So awful for all of these people in makeshift shelters," Gemma Connell, based in Rafah as Gaza team leader for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, told Reuters. 

Amidst downpours which have caused flooding, Palestinians in Gaza are heading back into their destroyed homes and searching under the rubble of buildings for winter clothing.

According to Middle East Eye’s contributor on the ground, Hind Khoudary, people headed into bombed houses on Wednesday in search of any dry clothing.

MPs call on UK to halt Israel arms exports

Elsewhere, over a dozen MPs have called on the UK government to halt its arms exports to Israel, saying they fear Britain is complicit in atrocities being committed against Palestinians in Gaza.

The lawmakers, who spoke in a Commons debate on Tuesday, questioned what the UK government knows about how British weapons are being used and, consequently, what assessments have been made that the government is following its own arms export laws.

The government is obligated under those laws to suspend arms export licences if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in violations of international law.

According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK government has licensed at least £472m worth of military exports to Israel since May 2015.

"Do the government know whether British weapons or military equipment are being used in Gaza or not?" said Labour MP John McDonnell, who also asked whether spare parts for F-16 and F-35 aircraft used in bombings had been shipped to Israel.

In the US, Axios reported on Wednesday that the US is delaying the sale of 20,000 M16 rifles to Israel over concerns about settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

That sale, however, is only a morsel of the weapons and munitions that the US is currently sending to Israel's military. On Capitol Hill, a small group of senators led by Bernie Sanders are mobilising to place conditions on supplemental military assistance to the country over fears that Washington is complicit in human rights violations.

Sanders on Tuesday sent a letter to the Biden administration urging the president to withdraw his support of an additional $10bn in military aid to Israel.

"The United States government has urged Israel to change its tactics, but we have done little but ask nicely while continuing to enable that campaign," Sanders said in the letter.

"The Netanyahu government’s current military approach is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States must end our complicity in those actions."

US fears of regional escalation

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan travelled to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ahead of his trip to Israel later this week.

The focus of the meeting, according to two US officials who spoke with Reuters, was to discuss "broader diplomatic efforts to maintain stability across the region and prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from expanding".

Prior to his meeting, Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed an attack on a Norwegian tanker in the Red Sea, the latest sign of escalating tensions in the region, which the Biden administration has been trying to avoid.

US officials have previously said they are preparing for the possibility of a wider conflict, and while full-fledged war has not expanded beyond Gaza, confrontations in the Middle East are rising each week.

On Israel's border with Lebanon, Hezbollah announced that two more of its fighters were killed, raising the total toll to 101 since 7 October.

Israeli officials have meanwhile ramped up their rhetoric against Hezbollah, with Netanyahu threatening to "turn Beirut into Gaza" and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant saying Israel had to change the status quo by pushing Hezbollah beyond the Litani River in southern Lebanon.