Two infantry soldiers were killed in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Sunday that two soldiers from an elite unit of the Givati ​​Brigade were killed by an explosive device in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.

They were named as First Sergeant Nachman Meir Haim Vaknin and First Sergeant Noam Bittan, both 20-year-old members of the Givati ​​Infantry Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion.

Two other soldiers and an officer were seriously injured in the explosion.

The IDF also announced that an infantry corps reservist was seriously injured in another incident in the southern Gaza Strip.

This comes as Israeli security forces continue to operate in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, to wipe out the last remaining Hamas battalions.

The Israeli defense establishment describes its current operations in Rafah as limited in scope and prefers to remain unclear as to whether and when a full-scale invasion of the city will take place.

According to the UN relief agency, nearly 800,000 Gazans have left Rafah for safer areas since the IDF began an operation in the city earlier this month. This includes almost half of Gazans estimated to be in Rafah.

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