Occupied Quds - Saba:
The Israeli army acknowledged this morning, Wednesday, the killing of an officer and six soldiers yesterday in a Palestinian resistance ambush targeting an engineering armored personnel carrier in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said in a statement that the serious incident occurred yesterday at approximately 5:20 AM. In the evening, initial investigations indicate that resistance fighters attached an explosive device to an armored personnel carrier belonging to the Combat Engineering Corps and then fled.
The Puma is one of the older engineering vehicles in service and does not have the same level of protection as newer armored personnel carriers such as the Namer or Eitan, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Details of the Khan Younis ambush:
At 5:30 p.m. yesterday, an initial report was received of a fire in an armored personnel carrier belonging to the Engineering Corps. Initial investigations indicate that a Hamas gunman approached the vehicle, attached an explosive device to it, and detonated it, engulfing the entire vehicle.
Military firefighting forces rushed to the scene and exerted efforts to extinguish the fire in the armored personnel carrier. A D-9 bulldozer was also dispatched to the scene and poured sand on the vehicle in an attempt to extinguish the fire, but all efforts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful.
It was then decided to withdraw the armored personnel carrier and continue firefighting efforts there. The vehicle was first towed to Salah al-Din Road in Khan Younis and from there out of the Gaza Strip, with the seven soldiers still inside.
The soldiers were unable to extinguish the fire until they reached the occupied Palestinian territories. Rescue forces and helicopters were dispatched to the scene, but none of the soldiers survived, and all were killed by the explosion and fire.
The identification process took many hours, and after the identification process, letters were delivered to all their families last night.
In another incident, a soldier from the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion, "Barak" Unit (188), was seriously wounded last night in a battle in the southern Gaza Strip. The soldier was taken to the hospital for treatment, and his family has been informed.
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