The Israeli military said eight soldiers were killed in Gaza when their armoured vehicle was struck by a bomb, in one of the deadliest blows for the army since the war began in October.
The background: The military said the vehicle was hit in the Tal al-Sultan area of Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah, where troops are engaged in fierce street battles with Hamas militants.
Preliminary enquiries suggested the vehicle "got hit as a result of an explosion of a side bomb", the military said in a statement.
It said the magnitude of the blast suggested that the bomb had set off a secondary explosion inside the vehicle.
Key quotes: "All this is not supposed to happen and therefore the incident is being examined," the military said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to the soldiers, saying: "Our hearts are shattered before this terrible loss.
"Despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war."
What else to know: Saturday's losses were among the heaviest for the Israeli military since it began its ground offensive in Gaza on 27 October and took its overall toll since then to 306 deaths.
In the single largest loss of life for the army, 21 soldiers were killed on 22 January when rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) fire hit a tank near two buildings they were preparing to blow up.
