Two IDF soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an explosion in a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in southern Gaza’s Rafah Saturday, the military announced.

The slain troops were named as Cpt. Noam Ravid, 23 from Sha’arei Tikva and Staff Sgt. Yaly Seror, 20, from Omer. Both served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the military said Sunday.

According to an initial IDF probe, the Yahalom soldiers, operating under the Golani Brigade, were scanning the entrance to a tunnel inside a building when they were suddenly hit by an explosion.

The deaths brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 416.

One of the wounded soldiers was listed in serious condition, while the other was moderately hurt.

In a separate incident on Saturday, a reservist with the Jerusalem Brigade’s 7007th Battalion was seriously wounded in northern Gaza. The circumstances of his injury are still under investigation, the military said.

Also on Saturday, two soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion were wounded, one moderately and one lightly, in a blast in an army encampment in the area of Gaza City’s eastern Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods.

According to an initial IDF investigation, the blast was apparently caused by a tank shell that detonated prematurely when it was being fired. Another possibility being looked into was that a mortar struck the area.

With the IDF set to expand its offensive in Gaza, the military said Saturday night that it was sending out tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists, with many........

© The Times of Israel