The IDF says Staff Sgt. Ofri Yafe, 21, a fighter in the Paratroopers Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit, was killed overnight in the southern Gaza Strip after being hit by gunfire from other Israeli forces.

Initial reporting indicates the incident took place in the Khan Younis area, near the “Yellow Line,” amid nighttime activity, after a mistaken identification. The military says the circumstances remain under investigation and have not been fully determined.

Yafe, from HaYogev, is the latest IDF fatality as forces continue operating in complex, close-quarters terrain where split-second identification errors can turn deadly even for the most trained units.

The IDF’s probe is expected to focus on coordination between units, visibility/marking protocols, and command-and-control during engineering and maneuver activity, areas that have repeatedly proven critical in dense combat zones exploited by Hamas and other terror groups.