The IDF said Tuesday that a deadly ambush that killed five soldiers near Beit Hanoun was carried out by terrorists who planted multiple explosive devices within 24 hours and attacked from concealed positions in elevated terrain.
According to the military, three explosive charges detonated in quick succession while the perpetrators observed the incident. Most of the casualties and injuries resulted from the second and third blasts, which took place simultaneous to machine-gun and automatic weapons fire.
Israeli forces responded with gunfire, then advanced to rescue their wounded comrades. Jet fighters and helicopters assisted by cordoning off the area to prevent any soldiers from being captured by the enemy.
The incident occurred just 1.5 kilometers (one mile) from the border, close to Israel’s newly established security positions. Unlike similar previous attacks, terrorists did not use tunnels but instead leveraged the hilly terrain and natural folds in the landscape to attack undetected. They fired machine guns from a commanding elevated position. While IDF forces returned fire, it remains unclear whether the attackers were killed. An aerial and intelligence-led manhunt is ongoing.
The IDF said the operation in Beit Hanoun aims to eliminate dozens of terrorists entrenched in underground tunnel networks in the town adjacent to the Gaza border and to neutralize the Hamas’ local battalion. IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said that large air and ground assets were deployed before launching the assault.
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According to the military, Beit Hanoun poses a threat to Israeli border towns, the railway line and the city of Sderot. The objective of the forces operating there is to neutralize both above-ground and subterranean threats. The battalion in Beit Hanoun—consisting of dozens of guerrilla fighters—is believed to have laid an ambush composed of a class-sized cell of between eight and 12 terrorists. “IDF troops are surrounding Beit Hanoun. It is a fortified target,” Brig. Gen. Defrin added.
He clarified that the IDF currently controls 65 percent of the Gaza Strip. “We are systematically and thoroughly destroying terrorism,” he said. “We are maintaining a firm hold on the ground to prevent Hamas from re-establishing itself.”
On humanitarian aid access, he confirmed: “In accordance with the political echelon’s guidelines, we will act accordingly.”
'Terrible night. We won’t break'
The soldiers killed in the Beit Hanoun ambush were Staff Sgt. Meir Shimon Amar, 20, of Jerusalem; Sgt. Moshe Nissim Frech, 20, of Jerusalem; Sgt. First Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin, 28, of Haifa; Staff Sgt. Noam Aharon Musgadian, 20, of Jerusalem; and Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, 21, of Beit Shemesh. Four of the fallen were members of the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion. Asulin, a reservist, served in the Northern Brigade of the Gaza Division and took part in the battalion's operation.
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Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, Sgt. Moshe Nissim Frech, Staff Sgt. Meir Shimon Amar, Staff Sgt. Noam Aharon Musgadian, Sgt. First Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin
Since the start of the war, 888 IDF soldiers have been killed, 446 of them in the ground campaign in Gaza. Of those, 39 have fallen since the last hostage deal.
One of the 14 soldiers wounded in the incident, Yedidya Buskowitz, wrote on X: “It was a terrible night. We evacuated under heavy fire. My friends were killed. I was wounded by shrapnel. We won’t break. We’ll keep fighting with all our strength against evil and the terrorists. Netzah Yehuda is a battalion of heroes. May the memory of my friends be a blessing.”
The number of Netzah Yehuda fatalities in Tuesday’s attack equals the total number of battalion members killed in Gaza since the war began. Before the incident, four Netzah Yehuda soldiers had died in the fighting, including three in an IED blast in May 2024.
The Beit Hanoun ambush is the deadliest incident in Gaza in two weeks, after an explosive attack on an armored personnel carrier in Khan Younis left an officer and six combat engineers dead. That was the most severe incident since June 2024, when eight soldiers were killed in Rafah by an anti-tank missile strike on an armored carrier.