Major disaster in Khan Yunis: 7 combat engineering fighters killed in IED explosion in APC

An officer and six fighters were killed yesterday (Tuesday) in an explosion in an engineering armored personnel carrier in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, apparently after an explosive device was attached to the armored personnel carrier.

This morning their names were allowed to be published - Lieutenant Matan Shai Yeshinovsky, 21 years old from Kfar Yona, platoon commander in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, and Sergeant Major Ronel Ben-Moshe, 20 years old from Rehovot, Sergeant Niv Radia, 20 years old, Alikin, Sergeant Ronen Shapiro, 19 years old from Mazkeret Batya, Sergeant Shahar Manoab, 21 years old from Ashkelon, Sergeant Maayan Baruch Perlstein, 20 years old from Ashchar and a sergeant Alon Davidov, 21 years old from Kiryat Yam, Israel - all fighters in the 605th Engineering Battalion.

Details of the serious incident in Khan Yunis:

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1. The battalion's fighters are fighting under the 188th Armored Brigade in the Khan Yunis area. The fighters are advancing in conquering the area in Khan Yunis - carrying out attacks on Hamas terror targets, destroying buildings and locating underground shafts.
2. ⁠Last night at 5:30 PM, the first report was received of a POM-APC - an engineering forces APC - that caught fire. The initial investigation indicates that one terrorist approached the APC and attached an explosive device to it. The device exploded - causing the entire APC to catch fire.
3. Military firefighting forces were dispatched to the scene and made efforts to extinguish the burning APC. As part of one of the exercises being conducted to extinguish fires in the Gaza Strip, a D-9 bulldozer was also brought to the scene and poured sand on the APC in an attempt to extinguish it, but all efforts to extinguish it were unsuccessful.
4. The decision made on the ground: to tow the APC to Israeli territory and continue firefighting efforts there. The APC was towed, first to the Salah ad-Din Highway in Khan Yunis, and from there - out of the Gaza Strip - while the seven fighters were still inside it.
5. Only when the APC reached our territory were they able to extinguish it, and rescue forces and helicopters were also dispatched to the scene - but none of the fighters survived, and there was no one left to rescue alive from the burning POM. All seven fighters were killed.
6. ⁠It took long hours to identify the bodies - and after the identification process - messages were delivered to all the families of the fallen tonight.

The IDF is still searching for the terrorists who planted the bomb. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the disaster was not caused by an explosive device but by an RPG (anti-tank missile) fired from close range at the armored personnel carrier.

In another incident, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion was seriously injured last night as a result of an RPG rocket fired at him. The soldier was taken to the hospital for medical treatment, and his family has been notified.

The Puma APC disaster is the worst disaster in the Gaza Strip in more than a year.

On June 15, 2024, eight fighters were killed in Rafah when an anti-tank missile hit a Nimr-5 engineering armored personnel carrier.

Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023, 879 soldiers have fallen.