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10 Israeli soldiers killed in ambush, fierce battle in Gaza

A Golani battalion commander is among the dead as units were ambushed in Shejaiya and an explosive device was detonated.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In the biggest reported loss so far in one battle during the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, ten IDF soldiers were killed, including two senior officers, and six were wounded in a two-part clash with Hamas forces.

Four men who entered a structure in the Shejaiya neighborhood to clear it were ambushed by Hamas personnel who shot at them from surrounding high vantage points and detonated an improvised explosive device (IED).

While the small unit was killed in the incident, their commanders did not know the situation, and rushed to save them.

Even if they had realized the worst had occurred, they would have come to rescue the bodies, as they knew that there was a Hamas tunnel in the vicinity and it is IDF policy to prevent the terrorist organization from spiriting corpses away to be held as future bargaining chips.

The rescue force was split into three parts, to converge on the spot from different directions. Each one came under fire and suffered losses, with two soldiers each being killed in two of the units and one soldier falling in the third.

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The battle raged for over two hours, with the ground troops receiving crucial aid from firepower provided by an armored unit of the 188th Brigade that allowed them to succeed in reaching and extracting the bodies of all their comrades.

Of the ten soldiers lost in the clashes, six were officers: Golani tactical headquarters commander Col. Yitzhak Ben Bassat, 44; Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, 35, who headed the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, and one of his company commanders, Maj. Roei Meldasi, 23; Maj. Moshe Avram Bar On, 23, a company commander in Golani’s 51st Battalion and one of his platoon commanders, Cap. Liel Hayo, 22; and Maj. Ben Shelly, 26 years old, a company commander in the Special Rescue Tactical Unit 669.

Sgt. Achia Daskal, 19 and M. Sgt Rom Hecht, 20, were also named as being killed in the battle.

While the IDF prides itself on its officers leading from the front, according to Kan, the senior commanders were sent to the scene in order to reduce the risk of friendly-fire casualties or the kidnapping of any troops.

On Monday, the IDF had reported that 13 soldiers who have been killed so far in the Gaza Strip died due to shelling, airstrikes or gunfire mistakenly aimed at them by their comrades-in-arms

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Later on Tuesday, a ninth soldier, St. Sgt. Oriya Yaakov, 19 years old, a combat soldier in the 664th Brigade, lost his life, and three others were severely wounded.

Sergeant Eran Aloni, 19, from the 51st Battalion, died over night from wounds sustained in battle.

In general, battle for Shejaiya is going well, according to the IDF, which says it thinks it will be able to finish clearing most of the dense neighborhood of Hamas fighters by the weekend. Some 350 terrorists have been killed there, as the terrorists there have put up strong resistance to IDF forces. Dozens of others have surrendered.