Two soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit – First sergeant Nachman Meir Haim Vaknin, 20, from Eilat, and Sergeant Noam Bittan, 20, from Moshav Yad Rambam – were killed by an explosive device in a tunnel shaft east of Rafah. In the same incident, an officer and two soldiers from the Givati Brigade were also seriously injured.
In addition, a reservist from the 5832nd Combat Engineering Battalion was seriously injured by an anti-tank missile fired at D9 armored bulldozer.
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First sergeant Nachman Meir Haim Vaknin, 20, from Eilat, and Sergeant Noam Bittan, 20, from Moshav Yad Rambam
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Since the beginning of the war, 630 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 282 who fell since the begining of the ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
The head of the Gezer Regional Council, Rotem Yadlin, announced Bittan's death and paid tribute to him. "Sadness knows know end. We are pained by the death of Noam in the battle in Gaza, son of Hannah and Yehuda, brother of Hagi and Hodiya, grandson of Reuven and Geula Abutbol, and Mazal Bittan and the late Eliyahu. Noam studied at Shalhevet Banim School and Boyar High School in Jerusalem. His funeral will take place at 3 p.m. at the cemetery in the Gezer Regional Council.
Early Sunday, morning a rocket warning siren was sounded in Kfar Aza. The Palestinians reported 20 deaths early in the morning in an IDF bombardment in a neighborhood in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, and several additional attacks during the night in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, north of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.