Rafah, 15 June 2024 – Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in the explosion of an armored vehicle near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. This was made known by the Israeli army, which for the moment has made public the identity of only one of the eight victims: the captain Wassem Mahmoud aged 23. The families of the other seven soldiers have been informed and their names will be made public later. It is about theepisode with the heaviest toll for the IDF in the enclave since January.
The armored vehicles of the Israeli army in an archive photo (Ansa)
According to initial IDF reconstructions, the troops were killed inside a Namer armored vehicle around 5 this morning, during aHamas offensive in the northwestern areas of Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, during which troops from the 401st Armored Brigade killed around 50 gunmen.
The Namer, fifth or sixth vehicle in the convoy, was hit by a strong explosion. It is not clear whether this was caused by a bomb placed on the road, whether Hamas operatives approached the vehicle with a bomb or whether it was planted directly on the vehicle.
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