From the Liveblog of
Friday, September 25, 2026
Two reservists killed in IDF drone explosion accident during operations in Gaza
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleEmanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Two IDF reservists were killed yesterday after a small explosive drone they were operating in the Gaza Strip crashed for an unknown reason and exploded shortly after, the military announced.
The troops are named as Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Kali, 24, from Har Halutz, and Master Sgt. (res.) Ofek Moalem, 23, from Jerusalem.
Both served in the Jerusalem Brigade’s 7007th Battalion.
According to a preliminary investigation by the military, the two soldiers on Thursday afternoon had been operating first-person view (FPV) drones known as “Atalef” — Hebrew for bat — from an army post inside the military’s Gaza buffer zone in the Strip’s north.
A first drone carried out its intended mission, while a second, during takeoff, crashed inside the army post for an as-yet-unknown reason. The soldiers approached the crashed drone several minutes later, picked it up, and it then exploded, fatally wounding them, according to the initial probe.
The pair were taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, where their deaths were declared.
Amid the investigation into the cause of the crash and explosion, the military has temporarily grounded all small drones capable of carrying explosive payloads — both suicide drones and those that drop their explosives on a target.
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