Yesterday, the IDF was concluding an operation in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood north of Rafah, when an engineering APC of the 601st Engineering Battalion exploded in a massive explosion.
Captain Wasim Mahmoud, 23, from Beit Jann, was killed in the explosion along with 7 other soldiers. The names of two additional fallen soldiers from the same incident have not yet been cleared for publication.
As reported by Kann News, this morning (Sunday), the IDF released the names of 5 soldiers killed in the APC explosion in Rafah:
- Sergeant Itay Amar, 19, from Kokhav Yair-Tzur Yigal. He was posthumously promoted.
- Sergeant Eliyahu Moshe Zimblist, 21, from Beit Shemesh. He was posthumously promoted.
- Staff Sergeant Oz Yeshayahu Gruber, 20, from Tal Menashe.
- Staff Sergeant Or Blomovitz, 20, from Pardes Hanna-Karkur.
- Staff Sergeant Stanislav Kusterev, 21, from Ashdod.
In addition, two IDF reservists were killed in an IED explosion on a tank in the northern Gaza Strip:
- Captain (Res.) Eitan Koplovitz, 28, from Jerusalem, a combat officer in the 129th Armored Battalion of the 8th Brigade.
- Master Sergeant (Res.) Alon Weiss, 49, from Psagot, a soldier in the 129th Armored Battalion of the 8th Brigade.
Two other soldiers from the same battalion were seriously injured.
Yesterday, it was announced that Yair Roitman, 19, from the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, a resident of Karnei Shomron, died of his wounds after being injured in the booby-trapped building collapse incident in Rafah early last week.