The IDF reported Friday that 27-year-old Sgt. first class (res.) Saadia Yaakov Dery from Tel Aviv, and 25-year-old Sgt. first class (res.) Omer Smadga from Ganot Hadar of the Alexandroni Brigade’s 9203rd Battalion were killed by a mortar shell in the Netzarim Corridor in Central Gaza.
Five other soldiers were injured, three of them seriously, and since the start of the war, 664 IDF soldiers have been killed, 312 of them since the beginning of the ground offensive in Gaza.
Smadga is the son of Oren Smadga, who won an Olympic bronze medal in judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, becoming Israel's second Olympic medalist.
Dery is the son of Laly Dery, a news commentator who previously ran in the Likud primaries and works for the Hamaniot nonprofit, which aids orphans in Israel. He is survived by his wife, Racheli, and their two young children, 2-year-old Haleli and 1-year-old Yinon. Dery also leaves behind five siblings.