The IDF announced a few hours ago (Saturday) that eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in an explosion in South Gaza's Rafah city.
IDF spokesperson Brigadier General Daniel Hagari said that the blast was most likely caused by "a planted explosive device in the area or anti-tank missile fire." Which in turn caused the explosion of an armoured personnel carrier, which resulted in the deaths of eight soldiers earlier today.
So far only one of the fallen soldiers was named Saturday afternoon, hours after the attack; Captain Wassem Mahmoud, 23, a deputy company commander in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion, from the northern Druze-majority town of Beit Jann.
Hagari added that a group of specialists from the Defence ministry and the IDF will inspect the transporter vehicle to gather all relevant details regarding the tragic incident. Indeed the explosion that engulfed their armoured vehicle in southern Gaza resulting in the deaths of eight Israeli soldiers, is the largest loss of life from a single incident for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) since January when 21 soldiers were killed in a single attack.
The incident is said to have occurred at around 5 a.m. on Saturday in the Tal al-Sultan area of the southern Gaza city when a convoy of half a dozen armoured vehicles from the IDF's combat engineering unit were returning from a mission. The vehicle struck was destroyed with all of its occupants killed.
The devastating news of the eight soldiers' deaths will probably fuel calls for a ceasefire and increase Israeli public outrage regarding military exceptions for the Ultra-orthodox.
It also comes in the wake of a recent decision to increase the maximum number of reservists who can be called up by 50,000, in light of evidence that the IDF is being stretched to its limits fighting on two fronts with no end in sight. On Sunday the Israeli bureau is supposed to examine expanding the age limit for reserve duty officers by a year.
In addition, a heated debate about who should serve in the army accompanies the rising combat death toll. Many ultra-Orthodox men who do not serve in the military were ordered to stop receiving government subsidies by Israel's supreme court last month. However, Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which is heavily supported by ultra-Orthodox parties, approved a new law last week that extends religious men's exemptions. Even though the first vote was merely a procedural one, its approval during a war in which hundreds of soldiers have died and many more remain in Gaza or fighting Hezbollah militants in Lebanon caused a stir.