An Israeli reservist was killed in fighting in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, the morning after seven soldiers were wounded in the enclave.

Sgt. First Class (res.) Ariel Lubliner, 34, was the 900th soldier killed across all fronts since the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel started the ongoing war.

The circumstances of his death were being investigated as a suspected friendly fire incident. A preliminary IDF investigation indicated he was killed by a bullet discharged accidentally by another soldier.

Lubliner was killed in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. He was a resident of Kiryat Bialik in northern Israel.

Lubliner immigrated from Brazil some 10 years ago. He is survived by his wife Barbara, an immigrant from Spain, and their nine-month-old son, Lior.

Lubliner had been due to finish the latest of numerous stints of reserve duty on Sunday, Hebrew media reported, and the family was planning to fly to Brazil for a vacation. He had been on duty in this round since June.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip now stands at 461.

On Friday night, seven IDF soldiers were wounded when the armored personnel carrier they were traveling in drove over an explosive device in northern Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood, which exploded, according to military officials.

One soldier was in moderate condition, and six others were lightly wounded, as of Saturday afternoon. Five of the six lightly wounded troops were treated and released from the hospital, and the families of all the wounded were notified.

The IDF statement on the matter came after misinformation circulated online in the hours after the event, pushed in part by Qatari outlet Al Jazeera, falsely reporting that soldiers were killed or abducted.

The Zeitoun neighborhood is in the southern part of Gaza City, the major population center in the northern Strip that Israel seeks to take over in the coming months, in a plan highly controversial both at home and abroad, and reportedly opposed by almost all of the senior-most officials in Israel’s security establishment.

The planned offensive comes as Hamas continues to hold 48 hostages, of whom 20 are believed to still be alive, and after the terror group said earlier this month it had agreed to a proposal for a phased return of the hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and a permanent end to the war.