Seven soldiers from the IDF’s Combat Engineering Corps were killed when a Hamas terrorist attached an improvised explosive device (IED) to a Puma-style troop transport vehicle in Khan Yunis in Gaza, the military announced on Wednesday.
The fallen soldiers were Lt. Matan Shai Yashinovski, aged 21, from Kfar Yona; St.-Sgt. Ronel Ben-Moshe, aged 20, from Rehovot; St.-Sgt. Niv Radia, aged 20, from Elyachin; St.-Sgt. Alon Davidov, aged 21, from Kiryat Yam; Sgt. Ronen Shapiro, aged 19, from Mazkeret Batya; Sgt. Shahar Manoav, aged 21, from Ashkelon; and Sgt. Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, aged 20, from Eshhar.
All seven were soldiers in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade.
Blast struck APC
The incident occurred at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when a report came in of a blast that struck the lightly armored personnel carrier Puma.
The IDF has not explained why the soldiers were not being transported in a more highly armored personnel carrier, the Namer, which has taken major hits from IEDs and anti-tank missiles.
It is probing whether the IED exploded on the outside or whether the Hamas infiltrator managed to drop it into one of the vehicle’s small canopies, which is usually extremely difficult to get close to. A number of Panther and other vehicles have been destroyed by IEDs in Gaza and in the West Bank during this war, but the IDF has made no plans to expand its Namer fleet beyond a certain point on economic grounds.
Firefighting teams and soldiers worked for an extended period to extinguish the fire, with a D9 bulldozer used to cover the vehicle with sand, but they were not able to do so quickly enough to save the soldiers inside. Later, IDF forces towed it to an Israeli base within Gaza and then eventually back into Israeli territory.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said he would grieve for the fallen soldiers, saying, “Our soldiers fought bravely and fell during their mission to defend the State of Israel and return our hostages. I send my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and embrace them on behalf of the entire nation in their most difficult time.”
Additional incident
Earlier in the day, at 4:25 p.m., another incident took place between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists in Khan Yunis, the IDF said.
During that clash, a force from the 605th Battalion, which was part of the 51st Battalion’s combat team, was hit by anti-tank fire. Two soldiers were injured – one seriously and the other lightly.