Latest news with #NahalBrigade
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beit Hanun disaster causing death of five IDF soldiers was a year in the making
All Hamas has to do is sit and wait. It knows that Israeli officials have vowed to disarm the terrorist group, exile its leaders, and defeat it. 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.
Shafaq News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
+15 Israeli troops wounded in Gaza ambush
Shafaq News - Gaza 16 Israeli soldiers including a senior officer were wounded—four of them in a state of clinical death—during a major security incident in northern Gaza, Israeli media reported on Monday. The operation targeted the Nahal Brigade, which had assumed control of the northern Gaza area only days earlier. Additionally, three soldier were missing following the incident, and ongoing search and rescue efforts have been met with armed resistance from Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades. The event occurred during a complex military operation near the Gaza border, involving intense fighting in an area reportedly rigged with explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Israel's Air Force helicopters opened fire at the site to provide cover and extract forces from the area. The exact nature of the incident has not yet been confirmed by the Israeli military.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
IDF, Shin Bet airstrike kills Hamas naval commander, mortar deputy chief in Gaza City
Additionally, soldiers from the IDF's Nahal Brigade, under the 162nd Division, operated in Gaza's Daraj Tuffah. The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) conducted an airstrike, killing Hamas Naval Force commander Ramzi Ramadan Abd Ali Saleh in the north Gaza Strip last Monday, the military confirmed on Sunday. Saleh was in a structure in Gaza City, along with the deputy head of Hamas's mortar shell array cell, Hisham Ayman Atiya Mansour, and mortar shell terrorist Nissim Muhammad Suleiman Abu Sabha, who were both killed in the same strike, the military added. Saleh had been a "significant source of knowledge in Hamas and was involved in planning and advancing maritime terrorist attacks against IDF troops operating in Gaza," the military noted. Meanwhile, soldiers from the IDF's Nahal Brigade, under the 162nd Division, operated in Gaza's Daraj Tuffah. During these recent operations, they located and dismantled "terrorist infrastructure sites, including military structures containing explosives, weapons stockpiles, and eliminated several Hamas terrorists." The Israel Air Force, guided by IDF soldiers, also struck an observation post that was used to target IDF soldiers operating in the area.
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
IDF strikes Gaza terror cell after it fired rockets at Israel, strikes 150 targets in Strip
The IDF said the strikes hit terrorists, underground routes, military structures, weapons, and sniper posts. The IDF struck a terrorist cell in northern Gaza after it fired rockets toward Israel on Wednesday, triggering sirens in Sderot and its surrounding areas, the military announced Thursday morning. The Israel Air Force (IAF) also carried out extensive airstrikes throughout Gaza, hitting approximately 150 terror targets, the military added. The IDF said the strikes killed terrorists, underground routes, military structures, weapons, sniper posts, and additional terror infrastructure sites. This comes after the IDF sent out an evacuation warning on Wednesday evening, calling residents inthe Gaza Strip to leave various areas in the Strip. In the area of northern Gaza, the IDF's Nahal Brigade struck dozens of terrorist targets and killed a terrorist who advanced toward them, the military said. In the southern area of Khan Yunis, IDF troops located weapons, including rifles, guns, magazines, and mortars, the military added.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
IDF thwarts explosive plot, hits Hamas terror targets in Gaza
The military said that the Nahal Brigade had struck several pieces of terror infrastructure in northern Gaza. The IDF struck several Hamas terror targets in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, the military announced on Wednesday. The military said that the Nahal Brigade, under the command of the IDF's 162nd Division, had struck several pieces of terror infrastructure in northern Gaza. "In recent weeks, numerous terror targets have been attacked from the air and ground, including terrorists, weapons depots, booby-trapped structures, launchers, and tunnel shafts," the release noted. The IDF said that the brigade destroyed a booby-trapped building that was identified using a drone. The military revealed that the building contained a bag of explosives intended to harm IDF soldiers. The strikes come in the midst of Operation Gideon's Chariots, which began in mid-May. To date, the IDF has seized nearly 50% of the territory in Gaza, according to past reporting from The Jerusalem Post.
