The IDF has lost about 600 killed and wounded in 2 months of fighting.Waiting for Godot...er...NATO
18.32 GMT
Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel war on Gaza exacting 'very heavy price' on Israeli army
Israel’s war on Gaza is enacting a “very heavy price” on Israeli soldiers, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement on Sunday, Agence France-Presse reports.
“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Netanyahu said after the Israeli army announced that 14 soldiers had been killed in Gaza since Friday.
Another soldier was killed on Sunday, the army said, bringing the total number of troops killed in Gaza to 154 since Israel’s ground assault that began on October 27.
“The war is exacting a very heavy price ... but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” Netanyahu said in a statement, adding: “We are continuing with full force until the end, until victory, until we achieve all of our goals: the destruction of Hamas, the return of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to the state of Israel.”
He went on to add: “This will be a long war ... [until] Hamas is eliminated and we restore security.”
In an announcement on Saturday, the Gaza health ministry reported that 20,258 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October. More than 53,688 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli strikes, the ministry added. Across Gaza’s 2.3 million population, nearly 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced as a result of Israel’s attacks.
Independent UN human rights experts have warned that Palestinians are at “grave risk of genocide”, despite Israel’s claims that it is targeting Hamas, not civilians across the strip.
Updated at 18.57 GMT
The losses are way too small to have any real effect on their fighting efficiency. But nice try.