The IDF has named a soldier who was killed by friendly fire earlier this week.
Staff Sergeant Ofri Yafe, 21, was a member of the Paratroopers Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit.
He was, according to the military, mistakenly identified as an enemy combatant at around 2am on Wednesday.
The error occurred when two groups of soldiers from the unit encountered one another while on a routine operation along the Yellow Line.
One group reportedly mistook the other for enemy forces near to Khan Younis and opened fire.
Yafe was critically injured and died as he was being medically evacuated by helicopter. No other casualties were reported.
Yafe is survived by his parents, Hadas and Iftach, and his siblings, Noy, Tzuf and Itamar.
The resident of HaYogev, a moshav in the Jezreel Valley, was memorialised by the Jezreel Valley Regional Council.
"[Ofri] set out to defend the State of Israel and all of us, and fell in battle," said council leader Shlomit Shihor Reichman.
"[He was] a brave youth, full of life and values, who chose to serve and give back to his country out of a sense of mission and love of the land."
Per the latest IDF figures, there have been 80 cases of fatal friendly fire out of the 472 soldiers killed in Gaza during the war.
A further 1,932 troops have been injured by friendly fire since 2023.
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