Seven soldiers from the Givati Infantry Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion were killed when a Namer armored personnel carrier they were in was hit by an anti-tank guided missile fired by Hamas, the IDF said. Another four soldiers were wounded in the same incident, including one seriously.
They were named as Sgt. Adi Danan, 20, from Yavne; Staff Sgt. Halel Solomon, 20, from Dimona; Staff Sgt. Erez Mishlovsky, 20, from Oranit; Staff Sgt. Adi Leon, 20, from Nili; Cpl. Ido Ovadia, 19, from Tel Aviv; Cpl. Lior Siminovich, 19, from Herzliya; and Staff Sgt. Roei Dawi, 20, from Jerusalem.
Two more soldiers from the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade — Lt. Ariel Reich, 24, from Jerusalem and Cpl. Asif Luger, 21, from Yagur — were killed when their tank drove over an explosive device. Another two troops were seriously hurt in the same incident. A soldier from Givati’s Rotem Battalion was seriously wounded in separate clashes with terrorists in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
Family members and local authorities also announced that 2nd Lt. Pedayah Mark, 22, was killed in the fighting, as well as Staff Sgt. Roi Sargosti from the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council. The fatalities were not confirmed by the IDF, which generally waits for all family members to be notified.
Mark, from the West Bank settlement of Otniel, was the son of Rabbi Michael Mark, who was killed in a 2016 West Bank shooting attack. He was moderately hurt in that attack.
On Tuesday night, the IDF announced that Staff Sgt. Roei Wolf, 20, from Ramat Gan, and Staff Sgt. Lavi Lipshytz, 20, from Modiin, who both served in the Givati Infantry Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, had been killed. The army said early Wednesday that the two died when a building they were in was hit by an RPG.