Four Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah after a building they were inside exploded, the IDF said on Wednesday. Five others were wounded in the blast.
The soldiers were identified as Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, deputy company commander in the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Moreshet; Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, 20, a paramedic with the 401st Armored Brigade’s 52nd Battalion, from Mishmarot; Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, 21, from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion, from Yoshivia; and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, 21, also from the Shaked Battalion, from Elazar.
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Cpt. Daniel Mimon, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
According to an initial IDF investigation, the soldiers were killed after entering a booby-trapped building in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah while searching for weapons. Further details were under investigation by the army.
Staff Sgt. Naim is the first female soldier to be killed since Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza.
Since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 713 Israeli soldiers have been killed, with 346 of those deaths occurring since the start of the ground incursion into Gaza.
Last week, the IDF reported that the Tel Sultan neighborhood, where six hostages were executed in a tunnel, still contained pockets of Hamas resistance.