Three IDF tank operators killed by IED in northern Gaza neighborhood of Beit Hanoun yesterday

Israeli Defense Forces on Wednesday evening announced that three soldiers operating a tank were killed in a large explosion in Beit Hanoun, which also injured three others, including an officer, who was described as being in serious condition. 

All the soldiers were serving in the 46th Battalion of the 401st Brigade, which has been operating in northern Gaza for several weeks. 

The explosion reportedly resulted from a booby-trapped pit that their tank drove over in Beit Hanoun. According to preliminary investigation, the explosive weighed tens of kilograms and exploded with enough force to overturn the tank. 

The fallen soldiers were listed as follows: Sgt. Matityahu Yaakov Perl (22) from Bet El; Sgt. Kano Kassa (22), from Bet Shemesh; and Sgt. Nevo Fischer (20) from Bruchin, a Battalion tank commander. 

Sgt. Mattityahu Perl had previously been wounded in combat in Gaza and only recently returned to fighting with his unit. The Bet El Council, where he lived, called him “a hero in life and death.” 

Following the explosion, the IDF initiated a complex and hours-long operation, involving air support from the Israeli Air Force (IAF), to rescue the wounded soldiers and return the tank to Israeli territory for repairs.

Since the start of the ground operation in Gaza on Oct. 27, 2023, 401 IDF soldiers have been killed during combat. Additionally, 5,589 soldiers have been injured since the war began, including 822 seriously. 

The affected unit has been operating under the IDF's Nahal Brigade in an operation in Beit Hanoun since last month. 

The Israeli military said the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by Hamas operatives has been a key part of the fighting there. Accordingly, the IDF revealed that two officers killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun on Monday were killed by an IED, and not from an anti-tank missile, as it initially believed. 

The operation in Beit Hanoun began at the end of December, and ten soldiers have already fallen in the fighting there. The IDF has been fighting against Hamas' local battalion in the northern Gaza Strip for approximately three months. 

On Tuesday, the IDF said it had withdrawn the Kfir Brigade from the northern Gaza Strip after two months of fighting. A continuing operation in the area, led by the 162nd Division, is still ongoing.

According to the IDF, soldiers of the Kfir Brigade killed over 300 terrorists during operations in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood. The soldiers discovered weapon caches and combat tunnels still being used by the terrorists during their operations there. 

According to a report in Ynet News, the IDF will not allow the Gazan population to return to Beit Hanoun after the fighting to to prevent Hamas forces from re-establishing themselves in the area.