Beit Hanun disaster causing death of five IDF soldiers was a year in the making
Five Israeli soldiers were killed in Beit Hanun on Monday, and another 14 soldiers were wounded. The incident involved terrorists using explosive devices and gunfire and took place as the IDF's Netzah Yehuda Battalion, part of the Kfir Brigade, was operating in the northern Gaza city.
The tragedy in Beit Hanun is one of several similar incidents over the past month and a half of battles in Gaza. Israel returned to fighting in mid-March 2025 after a ceasefire that began in January.
However, operations in March and April were minimal, designed to expand the IDF's control of the Morag Corridor near Rafah and also return to the buffer zone along the border.
Beit Hanun is in the buffer zone. The Gazan town, which is very close to the Israeli city of Sderot, has long been a hot spot for terrorists, often used by Hamas and other groups to launch rockets at Israel.
The IDF operated in Beit Hanun many times during the 640 days of the Israel-Hamas War.
Most of the city has been badly damaged or destroyed in the war. However, there is a false perception that destroying areas in Gaza or razing whole communities will make the terrorists go away.
In fact, the rubble and destruction may only provide a false sense of victory. The terrorists return to the wreckage. Terrorists hiding in rubble are just as challenging to find as those operating in an urban area untouched by war.
The rubble may even help the terrorists hide, as it initially gives the impression that an area has been cleared or 'pacified.'
History demonstrates that the ruins of cities do not make them any easier to conquer. During the World War II Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet city was destroyed, but the Soviets and Nazis nevertheless had a difficult time fighting over it.
WHAT HAS the clearing of Beit Hanun looked like over the last year and a half? Back in December 2024, the IDF said that 'following prior intelligence regarding the presence of terrorist infrastructure and operatives in the area, and as part of the effort to maintain security for the residents of the communities in southern Israel, the Nahal Brigade began operating overnight against terror targets in the area of Beit Hanun.'
The military asked civilians to move out of the town, and the IDF used the air force and artillery to strike terror targets before infantry moved in to mop up.
In September 2024, the IDF also had to strike terrorists in Beit Hanun.
'With the direction of IDF and Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] intelligence, the IAF conducted a precise strike on a Hamas command and control center embedded inside a compound that previously served as the Raazi El Shua School in Beit Hanun,' it said.
The problem with Beit Hanun is that the terrorists keep returning – or perhaps they have never left.
In January 2025, just before the ceasefire, the IDF noted that 'the Nahal Brigade continues its activities in the Beit Hanun area in the Gaza Strip. As part of these activities, the brigade's troops uncovered and dismantled multiple sites used to launch rockets toward Israel, as well as several rockets intended to launch.'
The army said that 'booby-trapped structures and observation equipment planted in the area to harm our forces were dismantled. In recent days, the brigade's troops have been engaging in intense combat in the area, during which both commanders and soldiers have fallen. The IDF extends its condolences to the bereaved families and will continue to accompany them.'
This means that after more than a year of war, the terrorists were still active in Beit Hanun. They were placing improvised explosive devices, and they had plenty of terrorist infrastructure in the area.
There was 'intense combat,' the military said. Yet, despite the challenge of a year of fighting in Gaza from the end of 2023 to January 2025, the enemy was allowed to remain in Beit Hanun. The ceasefire clearly gave the enemy time to regroup and recover, as it has all over the Gaza Strip.
WHEN ISRAEL began operations again in March, Beit Hanun was not a significant objective.
Later, Operation Gideon's Chariots was launched in May to regain IDF control over approximately 60%-70% of the enclave.
The theory was that the military would control these areas permanently this time. No more raids into areas and then leaving, such that the enemy returns and the ground has to be repeatedly retaken.
Beit Hanun is a microcosm representation of Gaza. The IDF has cleared it several times. Most Israeli commentators who follow IDF operations noted on Tuesday that the area has been retaken numerous times.
Yet, the enemy was able to set up an apparently complex ambush. The same methods were used to soften up the area before the IDF entered with infantry.
The problem is that the enemy has become familiar with IDF tactics over the last 640 days of war. The tragedy in Beit Hanun was more than a year in the making. If Beit Hanun, which is close to Sderot, cannot be cleared, how will most of Gaza be fully cleared of terrorists?
Every military leader knows that plans only look good on paper until they are put into action against the enemy. Then, both sides should shift tactics as they learn what works and what does not.
Although the IDF has learned a lot in Gaza, the enemy is also learning. It is waiting in the wings for an opportunity to strike.
Hamas controls the central camps and Gaza City, and it assumes the IDF will not enter this 30% region of Gaza.
As such, it uses that as a redoubt and then fights a low-level insurgency in the 60% of Gaza where the IDF is operating.
Hamas knows that Israeli officials have vowed to disarm the terrorist group, exile its leaders, and defeat it. But it also knows that Israel has made these vows in the past and that Israel tends to convince itself that it is victorious, while Hamas survives each round.
All Hamas has to do is sit and wait. If it has survived in Beit Hanun, this indicates the difficulty of uprooting it from elsewhere as well.
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Washington Post
3 minutes ago
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San Francisco Chronicle
33 minutes ago
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It's the first time in decades that the exams were not administered in Gaza. Israel's bombardment and ground operations have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced 90% of Gaza's population. School-age children in crowded shelters and tent camps are often forced to help their families find food, water and firewood. A complete Israeli blockade imposed in early March that was only slightly eased 2 ½ months later has driven the territory to the brink of famine. Local education officials, working with UNICEF and other aid groups, set up hundreds of learning spaces to try and provide education during the war. 'We're trying to salvage what we can of the educational process, so that the next generation doesn't slip through our fingers,' said Mohamed al-Asouli, head of the education department in the southern city of Khan Younis. During a six-week ceasefire in January and February, some 600 learning spaces provided lessons for around 173,000 children, according to UNICEF. But since March, when Israel ended the truce with a surprise bombardment, nearly half have shut down. 'The impact goes beyond learning losses,' said Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF spokeswoman. 'Children in Gaza have been trapped in a cycle not just of exposure to unprecedented violence, but also a cycle of fear, of toxic stress, of anxiety.' 'Two years of my life are gone' Some have tried to continue their studies through online learning, but it's not easy in Gaza, where there has been no central electricity since the start of the war. Palestinians must use solar panels or hard-to-find generators to charge their phones, and internet is unreliable. 'The mobile phone is not always charged, and we only have one at home,' said Nesma Zouaroub, a mother of four school-age children. She said her youngest son should be in second grade but does not know how to read or write. 'The children's future is ruined,' she said. Ola Shaban tried to continue her civil engineering studies online through her university after the campus was destroyed by Israeli forces in April 2024. She had to walk long distances to get a signal in her hometown near Khan Younis, and she eventually gave up. 'I couldn't continue because of lack of internet, continuous displacement and the constant sense of fear,' she said. 'Two years of my life are gone.' Israel's offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, does not differentiate between combatants and civilians but says over half the dead are women and children. Its figures are used by the U.N. and other international organizations as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251. They are still holding 50 hostages, less than half believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire deals or other agreements. Qanan's father, Ibrahim, a local journalist, said his family did everything it could to support Sarah's ambition to study medicine, only to see it go up in smoke when the war broke out. 'The war stunned us and turned our life upside down,' the father of six said. 'Our dreams and hopes were buried in the rubble of our home.' ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. ___
