HY’D: Five Soldiers Dead, Fourteen Wounded In Gaza Ambush

Five Israeli soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded by a roadside bomb in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun last night, the military announced.

Two of the slain soldiers are named as:

Staff Sgt. Meir Shimon Amar, 20, of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Sgt. Moshe Nissim Frech, 20, of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Staff Sgt. Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20, of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, from Jerusalem.

Sgt. First Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin, 28, of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, from Haifa.

Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21, of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda Battalion, from Beit Shemesh.

According to an initial IDF probe, the infantry soldiers were hit by a bomb planted on the side of a road shortly after 10 p.m. on Monday, during ground operations in Beit Hanoun. The soldiers were operating on foot, and were not inside a vehicle.

During attempts to extract the casualties, the forces came under fire in the area, according to the probe.

Among the 14 wounded, two are listed in serious condition.

The military says the area where the attack took place was targeted from the air ahead of the troops’ operations.

The Netzah Yehuda soldiers were operating under the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, as part of an offensive with the 646th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade in Beit Hanoun, aimed at clearing the area of terror operatives who remain holed up there.