Escalation in Israel-Gaza conflict leaves eight Israeli soldiers dead in Rafah

Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Israeli military said, as forces continued to push in and around the southern city of Rafah and strikes hit several areas of Gaza, killing at least 19 Palestinians.

The soldiers, all members of a combat engineering unit, were in an armoured carrier that was hit by an explosion that detonated engineering materials being carried on the vehicle, apparently in contravention of standard practice, the military said. It said the early morning incident, in the Tel al-Sultan area in the west of Rafah, was being investigated.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, said the vehicle had been trapped in a prepared minefield that set off the explosion.

"Our operation today is a painful blow to the enemy army and we have more," said Abu Obeida, the spokesperson of the Qassam Brigades said.

Israeli tanks advanced in Tel al-Sultan and shells landed in the coastal area, where thousands of Palestinians, many of them displaced several times already, have sought refuge.

The violence persists despite international calls for a ceasefire, with the near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militia fighters in southern Lebanon and northern Israel intensifying, also complicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political stance.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv in the latest of the now weekly protests by families and supporters of hostages still held by Hamas, demanding an agreement to bring them home.

In a video statement issued late on Saturday, Netanyahu said there was no alternative but to stick to the goals of the war to defeat Hamas and bring the hostages back.

Shiite militia attacks Israel with missiles

In a separate incident, a Shiite militia in Iraq on Saturday claimed responsibility for a cruise missile strike on a site in Haifa in northern Israel.

The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in an online statement that its fighters launched an attack at dawn on Saturday with a long-range al-Arqab upgraded cruise missile on "a site in Haifa."

The militia stressed that the attack was carried out "in solidarity with the people in the Gaza Strip" and pledged to continue its attacks on "the enemy's strongholds."

Earlier on Saturday, the group claimed responsibility for two drone attacks on Friday, targeting Haifa Port and Ramat David Airbase near Haifa. No details on casualties were provided in either instance.

Starved families survive on bread alone

In the north of the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been hit hardest by hunger, residents say acute shortages of vegetables, fruit and meat mean they are surviving on bread alone.

Food that can be found in the market is being sold at exorbitant prices, they said: a kilo of green peppers, which cost about a dollar before the war, was priced at 320 shekels or nearly $90. Traders demanded $70 for just a kilo of onions.

"We are being starved, the world has forgotten about us," said Um Mohammed, a mother of six in Gaza City.

She has remained there throughout more than eight months of Israeli bombardments. But she and her family have left their home for designated shelters in United Nations schools several times.

"Except for the flour, bread, we have nothing else, we don't have anything to eat it with, so we eat bread only," she said.

(With input from agencies)