Two soldiers killed in north Gaza, says Israeli military

The Israel Defense Forces announced the deaths of two soldiers during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip.

The slain troops were named as Staff Sgt. Ofir Berkovich, 20, from Modi’in, and Sgt. Elishai Young, 19, from Dimona.

Both served with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion.

Their deaths bring Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 357. The number includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry contractor.

In northern Gaza, Israel was said to be increasing the flow of supplies to the Strip’s much-battered north while the military pressed on with a renewed offensive there.

Strikes were reported at a number of hospitals and inactive schools sheltering displaced people. Israel says terror operatives regularly use such facilities as operating bases, and that it makes an effort to avoid harm to innocents.

Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital, said Israeli tanks had surrounded the hospital, cut off its electricity and shelled its second and third floors, causing risk to staff and patients.

At Al-Awda Hospital, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said in a statement.

According to WAFA, the official PA news agency, at least seven people were killed and several were injured in the strike on the school in Shati in the Strip’s north.

The IDF said that hundreds of civilians had evacuated from Jabaliya in recent days, and that troops had ensured their safe passage.

“During the activity, the IDF allowed civilians to evacuate safely from the area, through organized routes. So far, hundreds of people have evacuated,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said on X.