Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and 14 others wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Beit Hanoun area of the northern Gaza Strip, the military announced on Tuesday morning.
The casualties were identified as Sgt. Moshe Nissim Frech, 20, from Jerusalem; Staff Sgt. Meir Shimon Amar, 20, from Jerusalem; Staff Sgt. Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20, from Jerusalem; Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin, 20, from Haifa; and Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21, from Beit Shemesh.
Four of the fallen were members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, a Haredi unit, while Asulin served in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade.
Of the 14 wounded in the bombing, two servicemen, both from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, sustained serious wounds, the military announced.
According to Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster, the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade launched its operation in Beit Hanoun, which had been captured by the army multiple times during the 21-month-long war but has seen a resurgence in terrorist activity, on Saturday night.
Around 10 p.m. on Monday, the soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which has been operating under the Northern Brigade, were targeted by a terrorist ambush while crossing Beit Hanoun on foot, per Kan News.
During attempts to evacuate the wounded for treatment, troops were said to have been shot at by the terrorists who had ambushed them.
The broadcaster cited IDF sources as saying that the area was attacked by the Israeli Air Force in preparations for the ground maneuver and that it remained unclear when the explosive charge was placed.
“On this difficult morning, the entire nation of Israel bows its head in mourning over the loss of our heroic soldiers, who gave their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and to bring home all our hostages,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We embrace the families who have lost their most precious loved ones and pray for the full recovery of those injured in the incident,” he stated, adding: “Their sacrifice and heroism will be forever etched in our hearts. May their memory be blessed. May God avenge their blood.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated on X: “The unbearable news about the fall in the Gaza Strip of five heroic sons—most of them soldiers from the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion—pierces the heart.”
The IDF continues “to fight day and night with unimaginable human resilience. It is our sacred duty to draw all the necessary lessons in order to safeguard the lives of our brave fighters—even in the depths of battle,” Herzog added.
“I pray from the depths of my heart for the full recovery of the many wounded in this terrible tragedy, and I extend my sincere condolences to the grieving families who have lost what was most precious to them,” he added.
The death toll among Israeli troops since the start of the Gaza ground incursion on Oct. 27, 2023, stands at 444, and at 888 on all fronts since the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, according to official IDF data.
The IDF is continuing to press ahead with ground operations across Gaza as part of “Gideon’s Chariots,” a campaign with the stated goal of dismantling Hamas’s remaining military capabilities, taking control of key areas in Gaza and securing the release of the remaining 50 captives.
