The Israeli military has eliminated at least 7,000 Palestinian radicals during the ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Israel's National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi said, Paralel.Az reports citing TASS.

"More than 7,000 terrorists have been wiped out," he said on Israel's Channel 12 TV, adding that this was a "minimum estimate." "It could be more, because we don't know everything that is [going on] under the rubble of destroyed buildings, in tunnels and so on," Hanegbi pointed out.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces reported the deaths of five Israeli servicemen in the Gaza operation zone. According to i24 TV channel calculations, the number of Israeli casualties since the beginning of the ground operation in Gaza, according to official figures, reached 97.