Eight troops from the Combat Engineering Corps' 601st Engineering Battalion of the 401st Armored Brigade were killed in an explosion of an armored personnel carrier early Saturday morning in the western Rafah area. The APC was based on the Merkava tank, often considered the safest tank in any army.
So far, six of the soldiers have been named as Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, from the northern Druze-majority town of Beit Jann; Sgt. Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, 21, from Beit Shemesh; Sgt. Itay Amar, 19, from Kochav Yair; Sgt. Stanislav Kostarev, 21, from Ashdod; Sgt. Or Blumovitz, 20, from Pardes Hanna-Karkur; and Sgt. Oz Yeshaya Gruber, 20, from Menashe. The names of the final two soldiers are due to be released later Sunday.
The blast occurred as a combat team was making its way from an attack on the Al-Sultan camp in western Rafah to a staging area. All eight soldiers inside the armored vehicle were killed.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, this evening:
"Citizens of Israel, today we paid a heart-rending price in our just war in defense of our homeland. With deep sorrow, and in heavy mourning, I bow my head together with all citizens of Israel and weep over the fall of our heroic fighters: pic.twitter.com/DzF0JiwQ6t— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) June 15, 2024
Also on Saturday, the IDF announced that a fighter seriously injured earlier in the week in Rafah succumbed to his wounds. He was named as Sgt. Yair Roitman, 19, of the Givati Brigade's reconnaissance unit, from Karnei Shomron.
Roitman was wounded in an explosion in a booby-trapped building on June 10, in which four other soldiers were killed and six injured, including four seriously.
In addition, the IDF also announced the deaths of two soldiers killed in the northern Gaza Strip over the weekend. They were named as Cpt. (res.) Eitan Koplovich, 28, from Jerusalem and Warrant Officer (res.) Elon Weiss, 49, from Psagot.
On Monday, the IDF announced the names of more KIAs from the ongoing Operation Iron Swords following intense combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. The four were in the Shabura neighborhood of Rafah, as part of a force from the Givati Brigade Training Formation, which operates under the Givati Brigade carrying out a joint operation with the Nahal Brigade. The force's movement was carried out on the main street, near the market, in an area with tunnels, reinforced houses, and ammunition. The fighters reached a three-story building that they planned to enter. Before entering, they threw a stun grenade into the building, in order to detonate any explosives that might be there. But despite throwing the stun grenades, when the forces entered there was a massive explosion that caused the building to collapse.
In recent weeks, the US has pressured Israel to avoid a large-scale assault on the city for fear that this would cause widespread destruction and a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel has vowed to maintain its careful separation between the civilian population and combatants and has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter the Gaza Strip daily, including via a floating pier set up by the United States' military.
