New IDF account of building where 3 soldiers were killed

The IDF’s Gaza Division commander, Brig. Gen. Micky Edelstein, said Wednesday evening that three IDF soldiers killed in Khan Younis were blown up in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed a tunnel entry shaft. Enemy forces blew up “the UNRWA clinic on our troops,” he said.

However, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the military unit that implements government policies in the Palestinian areas, later said that the clinic was last registered as a sensitive location three years ago, “and it hasn’t been since.”

The spokesperson said the site had not been registered then as belonging to UNRWA, leading to speculation that, perhaps, militants stole the sign and tacked it on the door, posting it as a security umbrella under which a tunnel could be dug.

The army named the fallen soldiers as Staff Sgt. Matan Gotlib, 21, of Rishon Lezion, Staff Sgt. Omer Chai, 21, of Savion, and Sgt. Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv.

— Mitch Ginsburg’s updated story is here.