Israel says 7 soldiers killed after armoured vehicle hit explosive in Gaza

Tel Aviv, June 25 (IANS) Israel on Wednesday confirmed that seven soldiers were killed during combat operations in southern Gaza after an explosive device struck their armoured vehicle.

The incident happened on Tuesday after an operative planted a bomb on an armoured combat engineering vehicle the soldiers were in while they were driving in Khan Younis, according to local media reports.

The blast set the CEV on fire, and efforts to extinguish it were unsuccessful. All the soldiers inside perished in the blaze. The burnt remains of the CEV were later towed out of Gaza, The Times of Israel reported.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday released the names of six of the martyred soldiers and notified their families.

The six soldiers are Lt. Matan Shai Yashinovski, 21; Staff Sgt. Ronel Ben-Moshe, 20; Staff Sgt. Niv Radia, 20; Sgt. Ronen Shapiro, 19; Sgt. Shahar Manoav, 21 and Sgt. Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, 20.

The identity of the seventh soldier is yet to be confirmed.

These soldiers belonged to the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, 'Barak' Formation (188) of the IDF.

Earlier on Tuesday, another soldier of the same Battalion was severely injured in combat in the southern Gaza Strip and was evacuated to receive medical treatment at the hospital, according to the Israeli forces, who added that the family of the wounded personnel was notified.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the IDF and Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency announced that they recovered the bodies of three Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip overnight.

The three were killed during the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Their bodies were taken to the Gaza Strip and held there since then, according to the statement.

The three victims were IDF soldier Shay Levinson, who was killed at the age of 19, and civilians Ofra Keidar, who was 71, and Yonatan Samerano, who was 21, Xinhua news agency had reported.

Of the 251 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped alive or dead from Israel to the Gaza Strip, 50 remain in captivity, 20 of whom are considered alive, according to the Israeli army.

-- IANS

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