IDF Soldier Killed, Five Wounded In Hamas Ambush

An Israeli soldier was killed and five others were wounded, including three seriously, in a Hamas attack in the northern Gaza Strip earlier today, the military announces.

The slain soldier is named as Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, from Rahat.

He is the first soldier to be killed in Gaza since the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Strip on March 18.

The incident took place during operations of the 252nd Division near northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun. The division is working to clear the area close to the border of Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, as part of efforts to expand Israel’s buffer zone.

According to an initial IDF probe, at 12:58 p.m., a group of soldiers driving along an IDF logistics road, close to an army encampment inside Gaza, came under fire by Hamas operatives. The operatives, who had come out of a tunnel shaft, launched an RPG at the army vehicle.

Three servicewomen, of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, were wounded in the attack. Two of them, an officer and a combat medic, are listed in serious condition.

A short while later, rescue forces led by the commander of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, Col. Omri Mashiah, reached the scene, along with trackers from the brigade.

At 1:25 p.m., according to the probe, the Hamas operatives set off an explosive device on the side of a road, near the rescue forces, killing Alnasasra and wounding two other trackers, including one seriously.

The IDF carried out a wave of strikes in the area, in an attempt to eliminate the operatives behind the attack, the military says.