Tel Aviv [Israel], May 16 : The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Thursday that five soldiers were killed due to friendly fire during operations in Jabalya in northern Gaza, CNN reported.
The five soldiers, who were killed, included four sergeants and one captain, aged between 20-22. According to the IDF, the soldiers belonged to the Paratroopers Brigade and were killed after a tank operating in the same battalion opened fire.
The incident comes after a senior officer, Rear Admiral Yogev Bar-Sheshet, was injured in Gaza last week, according to the IDF.
Bar-Sheshet was injured on the same day when five Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza's Zeitoun area. Four of the five soldiers were sergeants who were killed by an explosive device.
The latest deaths bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the ongoing war in Gaza to 278. Israel has renewed fighting in northern Gaza despite having previously said it had cleared the area of Hamas.
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that the operation in Rafah remains limited in scope while it continues operations in two other parts of Gaza.
Speaking to CNN during a briefing on Thursday, IDF International spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said that the operation in southern Gaza city's eastern part, which started ten days ago, remained "limited in space and targets."
Shoshani said, "We're operating in specific places according to our intelligence, and where we know Hamas are hiding."
The operation was aimed at locating tunnel shafts operated by Hamas and found "ammunition of many types," including anti-tank missiles. He said, "more than 100 terrorists" had been killed, according to CNN report.
A broader offensive has been expected in Rafah while Israel continues to fight elsewhere in Gaza to stop Hamas regrouping. Shoshani stated that Israel's operations were being conducted in northern Gaza's Jabalya, and central Gaza's Zeitoun.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday announced that 39 people had been killed and 64 injured by Israeli military operations during the past 24-hour period, according to CNN report.
The Health Ministry in Gaza warned that "a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defence crews cannot reach them." The death toll in Gaza has reached 35,272 and 79,205 others have been wounded since the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
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