As Israel’s war with Hamas entered its sixth month, the Israel Defense Forces announced that four soldiers were killed in a Hamas ambush on Saturday.
According to the IDF, the four were securing an army logistics corridor within Gaza. The four were patrolling an area of destroyed buildings when several terrorists suddenly emerged from a tunnel shaft inside one of the structures and opened fire at close range. The terrorists apparently escaped back into the shaft.
One of the soldiers was identified as Cpt. Ido Baruch, 21, a member of the IDF’s elite Egoz unit and a commander in the Commando Brigade’s training base.
The other three were training in the Commando Brigade under Baruch. They were identified as Sgt. Ilai Zair, 20, from Kedar in the Gush Etzion region; Sgt. Reef Harush, 20, from Kibbutz Ramat David, and Sgt. Amitai Even Shoshan, 20, from Moshav Azri’el in central Israel.
The army said it is investigating how the tragedy occurred.
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border, 604 soldiers have fallen in combat, of whom 260 were killed during the ground war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, on the northern front, Israeli fighter jets struck a military complex and three other sites belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial defense array in the northern Lebanese area of Baalbek on Saturday night. The strikes were in response to an Israeli drone being shot down.
At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the remaining 134 hostages, Israel recently declared 31 of them dead.
