The Israeli military is probing the "disaster" that led to the death of 24 soldiers in Gaza on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Tuesday.
"The IDF (Israeli army) has launched an investigation of the disaster. We must learn the necessary lessons and do everything to preserve the lives of our warriors," Netanyahu said in a statement.
Some 21 reservists were among a total of 24 soldiers killed in Gaza on Monday, the army's biggest single-day losses since the start of its ground operation on Oct. 27, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
Hagari said that 21 soldiers were killed in an explosion when two buildings they had mined for demolition collapsed after militants fired grenades at a nearby tank.
Earlier, the military said three soldiers were killed in a separate attack in southern Gaza.
"Yesterday we experienced one of our most difficult days since the war erupted," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "In the name of our heroes, for the sake of our lives, we will not stop fighting until absolute victory."
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the war would determine Israel's future "for decades to come."
"The fall of the fighters is a requirement to achieve the goals of the war," Gallant said.
The large death toll of Israeli troops in fighting comes at a time when Israel itself is beginning to see the first stirrings of discontent with Netanyahu's war strategy – committed to the total annihilation of Hamas but with only vague discussion of what would come next for Gaza.
Since last week, Netanyahu has vowed never to let Palestinians have an independent state, a break with Israel's main ally Washington which has considered a peace process ultimately leading to a Palestinian state as the bedrock of its Middle East policy for decades.
Last week, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, former military Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose own soldier son was killed in the ground offensive in Gaza, said the campaign had yet to achieve its aims of dismantling Hamas and there was no hope of freeing the hostages in a military operation.
He called for swift elections to replace a government he said had lost public confidence.
