(JNS) The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday published the names of three soldiers killed in action in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip the previous day.
They were named as Staff Sgt. Amir Galilove, 20, from Shimshit, near Nazareth; Staff Sgt. Uri Bar Or, 21, from Midreshet Ben-Gurion, located adjacent to Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev; and Staff Sgt. Ido Appel, 21, from Moshav Tzofar in the central Arava.
The soldiers all served in the Nahal Infantry Brigade’s 50th Battalion. According to an initial investigation, they were killed by a blast in a booby-trapped building. An officer and two other soldiers were seriously wounded in the explosion and another officer was moderately hurt, the army said.
Their deaths bring the IDF death toll to 290 since the start of the Gaza ground incursion on October 27 and to 639 on all fronts since the war began on October 7.
Israel launched a ground offensive in the last Hamas bastion over three weeks ago, which began in eastern Rafah but has since expanded to other areas. Israeli tanks rolled into the center of Rafah on Tuesday, according to Palestinian reports. According to the reports, IDF infantry was also advancing in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of northwestern Rafah, with tanks positioned there, marking the first ground operation in that part of the city.
