Mourners held a funeral for 23-year-old Israeli captain Wassem Mahmud and seven other soldiers who were killed in the city of Rafah when an armoured vehicle they were in exploded.
The Israeli army said in a statement that Captain Wassem Mahmud and seven other soldiers "fell during operational activity in southern Gaza," in one of the deadliest incidents involving the military in the more than eight months of the war.
Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said it had killed and wounded a number of Israeli soldiers in an ambush in the southern city of Rafah, which included a strike on an armoured personnel carrier.
In a statement on Telegram, the Qassam Brigades said: "On the morning of Arafah Day, our fighters carried out a complex ambush against enemy vehicles invading the area of the Saudi neighbourhood in Tal al-Sultan, west of the city of Rafah. A D9 military bulldozer was targeted with an al-Yassin 105 anti-armour missile, which led to it igniting and leaving the bulldozer crew dead and wounded."
The latest fatalities take the Israeli military's toll to 306 since Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza on 27 October last year.
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