An Israeli soldier was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, the military announces.
The soldier is named as Staff Sgt. Danilo Mocanu, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, from Holon. Mocanu was operating in a platoon under the 82nd Armored Battalion.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldier was killed after a building he was in collapsed, following the detonation of an explosive device planted there by terror operatives.
After initial scans with a drone and a bomb-sniffing dog, Mocanu entered the building in the Khan Younis area with another soldier and went up to its top floor. The bomb exploded on the top floor, which collapsed onto the rest of the building, the preliminary investigation found.
The second soldier was lightly injured and rescued relatively quickly, but it took soldiers many hours to extract Mocanu’s body from the rubble.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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