Israeli soldier killed in Hamas attack, in first since collapse of Gaza ceasefire
Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra slain, 5 others, including 3 female troops, hurt in incident near Beit Hanoun; IDF: 150 targets hit, 40 operatives killed over weekend
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An Israeli soldier was killed and five others were wounded, three of them seriously, in a Hamas attack in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon, the military announced.
The slain soldier was named as Warrant Officer G’haleb Sliman Alnasasra, 35, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, from Rahat.
He was the first soldier to be killed in Gaza since the Israel Defense Forces resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Strip on March 18.
The deadly incident took place during operations of the 252nd Division near northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun. The division had been working to clear the area close to the border of Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, as part of efforts to expand Israel’s buffer zone — which now comprises over 30 percent of the Strip.
According to an initial IDF probe, at 12:58 p.m., a group of soldiers driving along an IDF logistics road, close to an army encampment inside Gaza, came under fire by Hamas operatives. The operatives, who had come out of a tunnel shaft, launched an RPG at the unarmored army vehicle.
Three servicewomen, of the 414th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, were wounded in the RPG attack. Two of them, an officer and a combat medic, were listed in serious condition.
A short while later, rescue forces led by the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade commander, Col. Omri Mashiah, reached the scene, along with trackers from the brigade.
At 1:25 p.m., according to the probe, the Hamas operatives set off an explosive device on the side of a road, near the rescue forces, killing Alnasasra and wounding two other trackers, including one seriously.
The IDF carried out a wave of strikes in the area, in an attempt to eliminate the operatives behind the attack, the military said.
Alnasasra’s death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 411. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
Earlier Saturday, the IDF said that over the weekend, the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes on over 150 targets in the Gaza Strip, including cells of terror operatives and Hamas infrastructure.
Since March 18, when Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas, the IDF said it has struck over 1,400 targets in Gaza.
The 282nd Artillery Regiment also struck dozens of targets in recent weeks, in the Morag Corridor area between Rafah and Khan Younis in the Strip’s south. The IDF said the targets hit by the artillery shelling included weapon depots, rocket launching sites and operatives.
Also over the weekend, the IDF said the 188th Armored Brigade, which is currently operating in the Morag Corridor, killed more than 40 terror operatives and destroyed numerous weapons, as well as a Hamas pickup truck.
Strikes are carried out in the Morag Corridor area of southern Gaza’s Rafah, in a video published on April 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
In Rafah’s Shaboura camp, the military said troops of the Givati Brigade and elite Yahalom combat engineering unit located and demolished a booby-trapped tunnel. The tunnel was hundreds of meters long, according to the IDF.
The Givati troops located numerous other weapons in the area, the IDF added.
A Hamas tunnel in the Shaboura camp of southern Gaza’s Rafah is destroyed, in a video published by the IDF on April 19, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
The Times of Israel Community.