JERUSALEM

Another Israeli soldier was killed in clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip, the country's army announced on Tuesday.

A military statement said a sergeant reserve soldier, 42, serving in the Northern Brigade of the Gaza Division, was killed in a battle in the northern Gaza Strip.

With the latest death, the number of soldiers killed since Oct. 7 has increased to 606, including 261 who have died since the start of the ground operation on Oct. 27.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,200 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 77,000 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in its 200th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul