Seven soldiers were killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip after an armored vehicle they were in was hit by an explosive device on Tuesday.

Axar.az informs, citing the Times of Israel, they all served with the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion.

The deaths raise Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 440.

According to an initial IDF probe, a Palestinian terror operative planted a bomb on the soldiers’ Puma armored combat engineering vehicle while they were driving in Khan Younis.

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.

In a separate incident in the Khan Younis area, two soldiers of the 605th Battalion were wounded, one seriously and one lightly, by RPG fire.