Two soldiers from the Yahalom Unit, Captain Noam Ravid and Staff Sergeant Yaly Seror, were killed in combat in a booby-trapped building in Rafah, Gaza, the IDF announced on Sunday morning.
Capt. Ravid, 23, was from Sha’arei Tikva, in the West Bank, and St.-Sgt. Seror, 20, was from Omer, in Israel’s South.
Soldiers from the Golani brigade entered the building where the incident occurred on Saturday night in the Rafah area, where a tunnel shaft was located.
In the afternoon, Yahalom soldiers began scanning the site when suddenly an explosion occurred, killing Ravid and Seror.
It is not yet clear whether the soldiers entered the shaft or were standing at the entrance. In the same incident, an additional soldier from Yahalom was seriously wounded.
A reservist in the 7007th Battalion, the 16th Jerusalem Brigade, was severely wounded in combat in a separate incident in northern Gaza.
This incident follows the IDF sending out call-up orders for tens of thousands of reservists starting Sunday, on the road toward widening the Gaza invasion.
IDF to increase presence and operations in Gaza
Also, the military said that the expansion would be in stages, signaling that it could take days or weeks before having a clearer picture of the strategy and impact of the IDF’s further invasion.
The move was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and is expected to be formally approved by the security cabinet on Sunday.
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Gadi Zaig contributed to this report.
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