9min ago
IDF says 2 soldiers killed, 3 wounded in this morning’s attack on troops in Gaza
By Emanuel Fabian
Maj. Yaniv Kula (left) and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, who were killed in an attack in the southern Gaza Strip on October 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Hours after announcing an attack on soldiers in southern Gaza that led to intense airstrikes in the Strip, the IDF says that two soldiers were killed and three were wounded in the attack by Palestinian terror operatives in Rafah this morning.
The slain soldiers are named as Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, 21.
Both served in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion and are from the central city of Modiin.
The incident took place at around 10:30 a.m. in southeastern Rafah, close to the Salah a-Din Road. The area, east of the so-called Yellow Line, is under IDF control as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
According to an initial IDF probe, a cell of terror operatives emerged from a tunnel in the area and fired RPGs at an excavator, killing the two troops. At the same time, another excavator was hit by sniper fire, wounding two more troops, including one seriously.
A short while after that, another soldier was wounded by sniper fire, according to the army’s preliminary investigation.
The terror operatives made no attempt to abduct soldiers in the incident, the probe found.
The troops had been operating in the area — under Israeli control as part of the ceasefire — to clear it of Hamas infrastructure, with the assumption that gunmen could still be holed up in the terror group’s tunnels.
In response to the attack, the Israeli Air Force and ground troops immediately carried out strikes in the area. Later, the IDF carried out a wave of airstrikes in southern Gaza, including against a tunnel system previously used by Hamas to hold hostages. |
