IDF Names Two More Soldiers Hy”d Killed in Gaza Building Explosion

The IDF on Motzi Shabbos released the names of two additional soldiers who were killed in an explosion at a booby-trapped building in southern Gaza on Friday, bringing the total number of fatalities in the incident to four, with five more troops wounded.

The newly identified fallen soldiers are Sgt. First Class Tom Rotstein Hy”d, 23, from Ramat Gan, and Staff Sgt. Uri Yhonatan Cohen Hy”d, 20, from Neve Yarak. Both served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit of the IDF.

The army had already announced the deaths of Sgt. Maj. (res.) Chen Gross Hy”d and Staff Sgt. Yoav Raver Hy”d in the same incident on Friday.

According to military statements, the troops had entered a structure in Khan Younis to search for terror infrastructure, including potential tunnel shafts.

The building was rigged with explosives, which detonated and caused the structure to collapse, resulting in the deaths of four soldiers and injuries to five others. One soldier was reported to be seriously hurt.

The explosion occurred just after 6 a.m. in Bani Suheila, a neighborhood within the Khan Younis area.

Hamas later claimed responsibility for the deadly blast.

Former hostage Liri Albag, who personally knew Cohen and Raver, paid tribute to them in a heartfelt message on social media Saturday.

“They didn’t have time to really live — not to love, to travel, to make mistakes, to recover. They only began to understand who they were, and then everything ended,” she wrote.

Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen commemorated Rotstein on Facebook, describing him as “the salt of the earth, who paid with his life so we can continue to live here in security and with hope to return the hostages.”

The Drom HaSharon Regional Council released a statement mourning what it called the “heartbreaking” loss of Rotstein.

In a press briefing following the deaths, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin explained that while entering buildings suspected of concealing tunnels carries risks, such operations are sometimes unavoidable.

“To do this without being harmed by an explosive, we use a variety of methods. We will investigate this incident,” Defrin stated.

He added that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir had conducted an assessment of the incident at the Southern Command headquarters earlier that day.

“We will draw lessons from this incident,” Defrin said.

Israeli political leaders responded with sorrow and tributes.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Friday was a “sad and difficult day,” adding, “Our four fighters gave their lives for all of our security… in a campaign to defeat Hamas and to bring back our hostages.”

“The entire people of Israel embrace the dear families in their heavy grief,” Netanyahu said.

President Yitzchak Herzog emphasized the weight of the national loss.

“The price of war is extremely heavy,” Herzog said. “This is a time of great sorrow, but also of great commitment: to stand behind the generation of heroic fighters, to embrace the families of the fallen, and to ensure that their names and heroism will never be forgotten.”