Israeli soldier dies from injuries in southern Gaza

The Israeli army announced Saturday the death of a soldier who died from injuries sustained days earlier in battles in the southern Gaza Strip.

"Sergeant Ya'ir Roitman, aged 19 and a fighter in the Givati Brigade, died from his injuries after being seriously wounded on Monday during battles in southern Gaza," it said in a statement.

The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said Roitman "was injured when Palestinian fighters detonated a building under siege in the city of Rafah last Monday."

Nearly 37,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli forces since last October, most of them women and children, and almost 85,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.