The Israeli occupation army has officially confirmed the death of four of its elite soldiers and the critical injury of an officer in a resistance ambush early Friday morning in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to the occupation’s own account, the soldiers belonged to the Maglan and Yahalom units, both of which are specialised in tunnel detection and demolition. All four were killed in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.
Israeli Army Radio reported that the soldiers had entered a building suspected to be used by Hamas fighters. The infiltration followed intelligence indicating the presence of a tunnel network inside the structure.
Reacting to the incident, the Israeli Prime Minister described the day as “sad and difficult,” saying:
“On behalf of all Israeli citizens, my wife and I offer our heartfelt condolences to the families of our four heroes who fell in Gaza during the battle to defeat Hamas and retrieve our hostages.”Two of the fallen soldiers whose names were cleared for publication were Sergeant First Class Yoav Reifer and Sergeant First Class Chen Gross.
Hebrew Channel 13 revealed initial findings from the ambush investigation, confirming that the unit—part of the Commando Brigade and the elite Yahalom engineering unit—entered the building to inspect it based on intelligence about Hamas activity and the presence of tunnels.
At exactly 6:05 a.m., just minutes after the soldiers stepped inside, a powerful explosive device detonated, causing the building to collapse entirely over their heads.
The explosion and the resulting collapse killed four soldiers and wounded five others, one of them critically and the rest sustaining moderate injuries.
The operation to recover the bodies from the rubble lasted several hours, under intense artillery shelling and air cover from Israeli warplanes.
Initial Israeli military investigations confirmed that all standard safety protocols were followed prior to entry. These included aerial drone scans, police dogs, bulldozers, and engineering tools designed to trigger hidden explosives. Despite these precautions, the resistance fighters had masterfully concealed the explosives, evading all detection.
According to Maariv, it took the Israeli army nearly six hours of continuous effort to extract the corpses from beneath the collapsed building.
