The army says five Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza in one of the deadliest incidents since the conflict began in October.

Israeli media reported that the soldiers were killed on Wednesday when they were mistakenly hit by fire from an Israeli tank.

It happened in northern Gaza in Jablia, where Israeli forces are fighting against Hamas fighters.

Troops returned to the city this week after an initial withdrawal, saying Hamas had regrouped there.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled Jabalia since the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) began its airstrikes on Sunday. On Monday, troops re-entered Jabalia.

Fighting has intensified in recent days there and in the southern city of Rafah, where nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians had taken refuge

The United Nations says about 600,000 Palestinians have since fled Rafah, with another 100,000 newly displaced by renewed fighting in the north.

All six Israeli soldiers killed in Jabalia on Wednesday served in the 202nd Regiment of the Paratroopers Brigade.

Israeli media quoted the IDF as saying it was investigating the cause of the tank fire.

But preliminary investigations revealed that soldiers were living in a building in the Jabalia refugee camp, which is also dozens of meters away from Israeli tanks in the area

The investigators determined that the tanks located a weapon inside the building and fired two shots at it.

Seven other soldiers were wounded by tanks, three of them seriously.