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The Israeli army announced on Friday that two reserve soldiers from the infantry battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade were killed and three others seriously wounded in fighting in the central Gaza Strip, according to Haaretz.

The army said its operations were continuing in central and the south of the Gaza Strip with an assault on Rafah intensifying and more casualties for Israeli mounting.

On Thursday evening, the Israeli army said that two soldiers from the 46th Armoured Battalion and 401st Brigade were seriously injured in southern Gaza from an anti-tank missile.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Thursday they had killed and wounded several Israeli soldiers in a complex ambush in Rafah, and they were able to target two Merkava tanks in the Shaboura camp.

Israel's military said this week their forces were continuing their operations across the enclave targeting militants and military infrastructure in what it described as "precise, intelligence-based" activities.

Hamas said a similar ambush killed eight Israeli soldiers last week in the Tal Al-Sultan neighbourhood, located west of Rafah.

The announcement came hours after Israeli sources said they faced a "difficult security event in the south" with mounting casualties for their military.

The killing of the soldiers was among the heaviest for Israeli army since it began its ground offensive in Gaza onÌý7 October.

Israel has pounded the enclave in eight months of ongoing war, killing over 37,400 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding 85,600 others. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled and the enclave's infrastructure heavily damaged.

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