The names of seven soldiers who were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip overnight were published by the IDF early Sunday, following correspondence with the families of the soldiers.
The names announced by the IDF are:
Capt. (res.) Eitan Koplovich, 28, from Jerusalem, a combat officer in the 129th Battalion.
Senior Staff Sergeant Major (res.) Elon Waiss, 49, from Psagot, a soldier in the 129th Battalion.
Sergeant Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, 21, from Beit Shemesh, a soldier in Battalion 601.
Sergeant Itay Amar, 19, from Kochav Yair-Tzur Yigal, a soldier in Battalion 601.
Staff Sergeant Stanislav Kostarev, 21, from Ashdod, a soldier in Battalion 601.
Staff Sgt. Orr Blumovitz, 20, from Pardes Hanna-Karkur, a soldier in Battalion 601.
Staff Sergeant Oz Yeshaia Gruber, 20, from Tal Menashe, a soldier in Battalion 601.
Two soldiers seriously wounded
The military noted that in the incident in which Koplovich and Waiss were killed, two soldiers from the 8th Brigade were seriously wounded and were transferred to the hospital for medical treatment.
From an initial investigation, two possibilities are being examined. The first is that an anti-tank missile hit the armored personnel carrier (APC), in which were the soldiers. The second possibility is that the APC hit a powerful explosive device.
The incident began on Friday night close to 12:00 a.m., with the attack by the 162nd Division on the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.
In the attack carried out by the 401st Brigade, in which the 424th Battalion and 601st Battalion of the Engineering Corps also operated, 50 terrorists were killed.
At the end of the operation, the forces were positioned in the northwestern part of the neighborhood, in which were many terrorists. At around 05:00 a.m., the forces began moving with tanks and APCs between the houses that had been cleared out for troops to stay in.
The fighters were traveling in an APC on an axis that led to the building where they were supposed to stay. At around 05:15 a.m., the explosion occurred while the APC, the sixth in the convoy, was in motion.
It was also noted that it was very difficult to access the APC that caught fire and resulted in a chain of explosions. After controlling the fire, forces began to tow the APC away. During the rescue operations, many drones were activated in the area to locate the fighters.
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