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A rare and deadly incident along the Gaza border in which an IDF soldier was killed and three others wounded — including a female officer and a combat medic — marks the first IDF combat fatality in the coastal enclave in over three months.
The clash underscores a shifting Hamas strategy: while preserving an estimated 20,000 fighters for a potential renewed Israeli ground assault, the terrorist group continues to seek opportunities to harass and attack Israeli forces when strategic assets are at risk.
According to an initial IDF investigation, the terrorists involved in Saturday’s attack emerged from a previously undetected shaft of a tunnel that had recently been located and marked for demolition by Israeli forces. The attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at a vehicle carrying members of a combat reconnaissance unit, followed by an improvised explosive device (IED) that struck the rescue team arriving at the scene. Warrant Officer G'haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a tracker from Rahat, was killed in the blast; another tracker was wounded.
The incident marked the second such attack within a week in the buffer zone. In a previous incident, Hamas operatives emerged from a tunnel and targeted a 401st Armored Brigade force, which is currently expanding the same security zone in Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods near Kibbutz Kfar Aza. In that case, the terrorists were eliminated.
Hamas has recently withdrawn most of its forces into densely populated areas housing displaced civilians, aiming to preserve strength in the event of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion aimed at toppling the terrorist group. At the same time, it is attempting to strike Israeli forces opportunistically, particularly when tunnel infrastructure — such as attack tunnels near the border — is threatened.
The IDF, for its part, has scaled back reservist deployments in Israeli border communities but has yet to redeploy additional regular units from the 36th Division, which is still operating with limited forces along the Morag Corridor between Khan Younis and Rafah.
During Saturday’s midday incident, a Hamas terrorist cell emerged from an undiscovered tunnel shaft and spotted an Israeli reconnaissance team approaching a checkpoint near their post, using a military vehicle along a rear service route.
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IDF forces operating across Gaza
(Video: IDF)
The terrorists fired an RPG at the vehicle, hitting two female soldiers traveling in what is considered a safer administrative corridor between the post and the border — an area where lightly armored vehicles like Humvees are commonly used due to its proximity to the fence.
At the time, the new commander of the IDF's Northern Gaza Brigade, Col. Omri Mashiach, was nearby near the Erez post and quickly deployed to the scene with a team of trackers. Twenty-seven minutes later, while they were sweeping the area and firing at suspected targets to isolate the zone, an improvised explosive device was detonated, killing tracker Alnasasra and wounding another soldier.
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According to a preliminary IDF assessment, terrorists in both this and a similar attack earlier in the week used a tunnel recently discovered near the Gaza border, across from the Israeli communities of Nir Am and Mefalsim.
The IDF has yet to locate the attackers and is investigating whether they retreated into the nearby “Dreidel” neighborhood of Beit Hanoun. Military officials believe recent IDF activity to dismantle the tunnel may have prompted Hamas to activate it in retaliation.
The unit involved in the incident is operating under the 252nd Reserve Division and is tasked with building a new security buffer zone that includes a series of frontline outposts. These are meant to provide a constant Israeli military presence to shield Gaza-adjacent communities from potential incursions or rocket fire by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Southern Command has stepped up efforts in recent months to locate and destroy cross-border tunnels in this stretch, which spans roughly 65 kilometers — from Kerem Shalom at the southern tip of Gaza to Zikim on the northern coast.
At least two major tunnels, some running close to IDF outposts, were found and destroyed in the past month. Commanders believe the buffer zone must be expanded further, especially in areas where dense Gaza neighborhoods directly abut the border, such as Shijaiyah near Nahal Oz and Beit Lahia across from Netiv HaAsara. The posts are primarily manned by reservists assigned to static defense missions, similar to the old security zone Israel once maintained in southern Lebanon, and to a newer five-post defensive line now being established along the Lebanese border.
Saturday’s fatal incident was the first in Gaza in two months involving the death of an Israeli soldier. On February 6, during a temporary ceasefire and hostage release operation, two soldiers—Sergeant First Class (res.) Nadav Cohen and Staff Sergeant Nachman Refael Ben Ami of the Golani Brigade—were killed when a military crane collapsed in northern Gaza.
The last fatal combat encounter in Gaza prior to that took place on January 13, when five Nahal Brigade soldiers were killed in a building explosion in Beit Hanoun. The fallen were Capt. Yair Yaakov Shushan, Staff Sgt. Yahav Hadar, Staff Sgt. Guy Karmiel, Staff Sgt. Yoav Feffer and Staff Sgt. Aviel Wiseman.