The military said the circumstances are under further investigation.<\/p>\n
\t Yafe is survived by his parents, Hadas and Iftach, and his siblings Noy, Tzuf and Itamar. According to his family, Yafe loved surfing, hiking and spending time with his friends and family.<\/p>\n The Jezreel Valley Regional Council said Yafe \u201cset out to defend the State of Israel and all of us, and fell in battle.\u201d He was described by the council\u2019s head, Shlomit Shihor Reichman, as \u201ca 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the 472 Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza Strip during Israel\u2019s ground operations against Hamas, 80 were killed by friendly fire and in other accidents, according to IDF data.<\/p>\n Another 1,932 soldiers have been wounded in incidents of friendly fire and accidents in the Gaza Strip, according to the data.<\/p>\n The IDF has assessed that myriad reasons have led to the deadly accidents, including communication issues between forces, and soldiers being exhausted and not paying attention to regulations.<\/p>\n Yafe is the fifth IDF soldier to be killed in Gaza since a ceasefire went into effect in October 2025. On October 19, Maj. Yaniv Kula and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz were killed<\/a> in an attack by Palestinian terror operatives in Rafah. The attack also wounded Sgt. Maj. (res.) Asael Babad, who succumbed to his wounds<\/a> last month. Then on October 28, Master Sgt. (res.) Yona Efraim Feldbaum was killed<\/a> in an attack on troops in Rafah.<\/p>\n Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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