Four IDF soldiers killed in Gaza building blast

Powerful explosion took place at 6:10 a.m., during a ground operation targeting a fortified Hamas compound with a system of tunnels.

By JNS and WIN Staff

Four IDF soldiers died on Friday in a building collapse caused by a powerful explosion in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Five more soldiers were wounded in the incident: a reserve officer in the Maglan commando unit was seriously injured and the rest moderately.

The IDF spokesman authorized for publication the names of two of the slain men: Maglan Sgt. Maj. (res.) Chen Gross, 33, from Hinanit in northern Samaria, and Staff Sgt. Yoav Raver, 19, of the Yahalom engineering special forces unit, from Moshav Sde Warburg north of Kfar Saba.

On Saturday night, the IDF announced the names of two of the four Yahalom Unit soldiers who fell: Sergeant First Class Tom Rotstein, aged 23 from Ramat Gan, and Sergeant Uri Yhonatan Cohen, aged 20, from Neve Yarak.

The explosion took place at 6:10 a.m., during a ground attack by forces of the 98th Paratroopers Division. The target of the operation was a fortified Hamas compound with a system of tunnels.

The soldiers entered the building to clear it with preemptive fire and tank cover as required. IDF troops worked for hours to extract the four men killed from the rubble.

Raver left behind his parents, Lior and Gili, his sister Tamar, and his brother Omri.

Gross is survived by his parents, Irit and Adi, and two brothers, Mor and Raz. He was a member of his community’s rapid response team in Hinanit.

The death toll among IDF troops since the start of the ground incursion in Gaza on Oct. 27, 2023, now stands at 422, and at 864 on all fronts since the Hamas-led terrorist assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Additionally, civilian contractors Liron Yitzhak and Kobi Avitan were mortally wounded in Gaza in May 2024 and January 2025, respectively, and Ch. Insp. Arnon Zamora, of the Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was slain during a hostage rescue in June 2024.