Soldier Avi Mor, 20, and his friend Aviv Shar'abi, 19, were trampled to death late Thursday night by a freight train near the industrial area in Emek Hefer, not far from Netanya.
The pair, residents of Or Yehuda, were found on the tracks near the industrial zone. Paramedics who were called to the scene of the incident pronounced the men dead.
It is suspected that the two were walking on the railroad tracks when they were hit by the train.
Sources say that the men were with two other friends coming home after spending the night at a nearby club. When the group noticed the two men missing they searched the premises and found them lying on the tracks.
An eyewitness told Yediot Aharonot that the train did not stop, likely because the driver did not realize the train had hit anything. The incident is under investigation.
This past September, a pedestrian was killed near the northern town of Pardes Hannah after being hit by a train. Another incident took the life of an Israeli soldier in June after he fell off of a moving train and was pulled underneath it. The 19-year-old soldier had apparently tried to jump back on to the train to retrieve a bag he had left behind.