Jerusalem, June 15 (Xinhua) — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Saturday night that eight soldiers were killed in an explosion that occurred in the morning in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
All of the soldiers died inside a Namer combat engineering vehicle (VIC), according to an initial IDF investigation.
The soldiers were advancing in a convoy around 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) after launching a nighttime campaign against Hamas in the northwestern district of Rafah, during which soldiers from the 401st Armored Brigade killed about 50 gunmen. Palestinians.
The convoy was heading to rest in some buildings taken over by the army when a major explosion rocked the VIC Namer, which was the fifth or sixth in the convoy, the IDF said.
The results of the investigation did not verify whether the explosion was due to a pre-planted bomb or an explosive device placed directly by Hamas operatives on the vehicle.
According to a previous IDF statement today, during the week in the Rafah area, Israeli soldiers raided Palestinian militant infrastructure based on intelligence, killed militants, and located large quantities of weapons above and below ground.
