JERUSALEM (VINnews) — BDE: During the course of a heavy storm in Israel on Wednesday, disaster struck in the buffer zone between Israel and the Gaza Strip. An operational crane collapsed late Wednesday night in the northern buffer zone adjacent to Kfar Aza. Two soldiers who were inside a tent at the outpost were killed and eight injured, one seriously.

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One of the fallen soldiers is staff-sergeant Nadav Cohen, 21, from Moshav Beit Hanan, a soldier in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade. The second soldier was named as Staff Sergeant Nachman Refael Ben Ami, 20, from Eilat, also from the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade.

Nadav Cohen wrote the following chilling words in November 2023, a month after the war began:
“From time to time, I think about people my age around the world. They’re in college now, partying, drinking, and here I am in Gaza City, with a very small group of people who chose the greater good.”

“They will never know what it’s like to lose a friend right in front of them. Their biggest concern is how their hair looks in the morning, not how many enemies they might encounter today. Am I jealous of them? Yes. Would I trade places with them? Never. Because they will always get to hug their mother and feel like the luckiest people in the world.”

“Since childhood, we’ve been told that the more successful we are, the richer and more accomplished we will be. At my young age, I already know that’s not true. Happiness is about perspective. Only someone who has lost everything—hot food, a place to sleep—can truly appreciate their mother’s cooking.”

In the wake of the collapse, The IDF has stopped operating all cranes in the Gaza border area and at outposts in the Gaza Strip on the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors at least until the investigation is completed and the weather clears. Initial assessments by the IDF say that the collapse was caused by a sudden and particularly strong wind.

The crane which collapsed is actually a lifting platform that the IDF has frequently used in Gaza since the beginning of the war, a crane that regularly lifts observation equipment such as cameras and radars at temporary outposts.

According to data from the Israel Meteorological Service, winds in the southern coastal plain were blowing at about 60 kilometers per hour at that time of the collapse.

The soldiers were inside a tent and not in a protected structure like at other outposts in the new buffer zone. According to initial evidence, there were no early signs that the crane would collapse, such as the crane shaking, and a sudden gust of wind that lasted a few seconds led to its falling onto the encampment, hundreds of meters from the border fence near Kfar Aza.