The IDF announced today that Cpt. Yarden Zakay, a 21-year-old platoon commander with the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion from Hadera, has died from injuries sustained in a September battle in southern Gaza.

Zakay was critically injured on September 17 during intense fighting in Rafah. The same incident claimed the lives of four of his comrades: Cpt. Daniel Mimon Toaff, Staff Sgt. Agam Naim, Staff Sgt. Amit Bakri, and Staff Sgt. Dotan Shimon, with several others also wounded.

An IDF investigation found the soldiers were caught in an explosion caused by weaponry inside a building they were operating in.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)