Two IDF soldiers killed, two wounded in blast in booby-trapped Rafah tunnel
Slain Yahalom combat engineering troops named as Cpt. Noam Ravid, 23, from Sha’arei Tikva and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, 20, from Omer
Two IDF soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an explosion in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in southern Gaza’s Rafah Saturday, the military announced.
The slain troops were named as Cpt. Noam Ravid, 23 from Sha’arei Tikva and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, 20, from Omer. Both served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the military said Sunday.
According to an initial IDF probe, the Yahalom soldiers, operating under the Golani Brigade, were scanning the entrance to a tunnel inside a building when they were suddenly hit by an explosion.
The deaths brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 416.
One of the wounded soldiers was listed in serious condition, while the other was moderately hurt.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a reservist with the Jerusalem Brigade’s 7007th Battalion was seriously wounded in northern Gaza. The circumstances of his injury are still under investigation, the military said.
Also on Saturday, two soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion were wounded, one moderately and one lightly, in a blast in an army encampment in the area of Gaza City’s eastern Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods.
According to an initial IDF investigation, the blast was apparently caused by a tank shell that detonated prematurely when it was being fired. Another possibility being looked into was that a mortar struck the area.
With the IDF set to expand its offensive in Gaza, the military said Saturday night that it was sending out tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists, with many having likely been called up multiple times already during the war.
Surge in aid looting
Meanwhile Saturday, locals and aid workers said that armed groups and others have been looting warehouses of supplies in northern Gaza as desperation spikes after more than two months of Israel’s blockade of the territory.
Unidentified people, both armed and unarmed, have been looting UN and aid groups’ warehouses, as well as bakeries and shops since Wednesday, according to witnesses, organizations in Gaza, and messages that were circulated among security officials for aid groups and were seen by The Associated Press.
Since the beginning of March, Israel has cut off Gaza from all imports, leading to what is believed to be the most severe shortage of food, medicine, and other supplies in nearly 19 months of war with Hamas. Israel says the goal of its blockade is to pressure Hamas to free the remaining 59 hostages of the 251 taken during the terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people and started the war.
Israel has proposed having all aid sent through a single crossing in southern Gaza and using the military or private security contractors to deliver it to these hubs, according to the documents shared with AP and aid workers familiar with the discussions. The distribution hubs would all be south of the Netzarim Corridor that isolates northern Gaza from the rest of the territory, the documents say.
Officials from the UN and aid groups say the proposals that Israel has floated are untenable. These officials say they would allow military and political objectives to impede humanitarian goals, put restrictions on who is eligible to give and receive aid, and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move, which would violate international law.
Aid groups have said Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation, and there is concern that the desperation could lead to a breakdown of law and order. Although there has been looting by armed gangs throughout the war, aid workers say this week’s looting marks an escalation, as it was less organized and reached urban areas.
Curfew is enforced
Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry said Saturday that over the past two days, it had killed six suspects and wounded 13 others over looting activities. The ministry also enforced a curfew starting Friday along some of Gaza City’s main streets.
The al-Najjar family, one of Gaza City’s most prominent, condemned the pillaging and called for respect and the protection of public and private property. “We categorically reject the chaos that harms the interests of the nation and its citizens,” it said in a statement.
In Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, desperate families pushed and shoved at food distribution sites to reach steaming vats of soup.
“We are eight people. I need to provide them with a bite of food,” Faten Al-Sabbagh. “I wish I can find even bread, but there is nothing and we are unable to. The prices are high and there are no salaries.”
The top UN court on Friday wrapped a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israeli strikes on Gaza continued overnight Friday, leaving at least 17 people dead, including children, in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital records.
Among the dead were 11 people from the same family, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another strike killed two newly married couples, one of their families said.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the tolls provided by agencies run by the terror group cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The Times of Israel Community.