Four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the military announced.
The four were identified as Sgt. Maj. (res.) Alexander Fedorenko, 37, from Bat Yam; Staff Sgt. Danila Diakov, 21, from Maale Adumim; Sgt. Yahav Maayan, 19, from Modiin; and Sgt. Eliav Astuker, 19, from Ashdod.
Six additional troops were wounded in the same incident, two of them seriously.
According to an initial IDF probe, the soldiers were struck by an explosive in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.
Separately, eight soldiers were wounded on Friday in an explosion during operations in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip. Three sustained serious injuries but are now stable. The IDF initially withheld details but released them following a Kan News request.
The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the ground incursion in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 27, 2023, now stands at 403, and at 835 on all fronts since the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Chief Inspector Arnon Zamora, a member of the Israel Border Police’s Yamam National Counter-Terrorism Unit, was fatally wounded during a hostage-rescue mission in Gaza in June, and civilian defense contractor Liron Yitzhak was mortally wounded there in May.