The IDF announced on Wednesday morning that four soldiers were killed in combat in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The soldiers were killed in Rafah after a building they were inside exploded, the IDF said. Five others were injured in the blast, three seriously and two moderately. The soldiers were on a mission to find weapons in the Tel Sultan neighborhood when they entered the booby-trapped building.

The casualties include the first female IDF soldier to be killed during the ground war in Gaza: Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, H’yd, 20, from Mishmarot, a kibbutz in north-central Israel, who served as a paramedic in the 52nd Battalation in the 401st Armored Brigade.

The other three soldiers served in the Shaked Battalion of the Givati Brigade. They were identified as Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, H’yd, 21, from Yoshivia, a religious moshav in southern Israel; Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, H’yd, 21, from Elazar, a religious yishuv in Gush Etzion; and Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, H’yd, from Moreshet, a religious yishuv in northern Israel, who served as a deputy company commander.

Their deaths increase the death toll of soldiers killed in Gaza since the ground war began to 346 and the number of soldiers killed since October 7 to 713.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)