Roadside bombs remain the signature threat to convoys in dense Gaza streets.
Four IDF soldiers were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb struck a Humvee during a morning operation in Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood.
The fallen are Maj. Omri Chai Ben Moshe, 26, of Tzafria; Lt. Eran Shelem, 23, of Ramat Yohanan; Lt. Eitan Avner Ben Itzhak, 22, of Har Bracha; and Lt. Ron Arieli, 20, of Hadera.
All served in the Dekel Battalion of Bahad 1 (the IDF Officers’ School). Ben Moshe was a company commander; the three cadets were posthumously promoted to lieutenant.
According to the initial IDF probe, a D9 armored bulldozer was clearing a route with two Humvees trailing; one Humvee pulled to the roadside and was hit by an explosive device, killing four and injuring three—one seriously, two moderately.
The army is examining the bomb’s type, activation method, and when it was placed.
The incident occurred amid ongoing security sweeps in Jenina, the last stubborn pocket of Rafah where Hamas terrorists have been trying to reconstitute cells and lay booby-traps even after months of IDF control elsewhere in the city.
Earlier in the day, troops from the 261st Brigade reported three engagements with terrorists in the area—a reminder that even “cleared” terrain can still be lethal.
The IDF has previously described Jenina (also rendered al-Janina) as Rafah’s final active enclave—an urban maze where tunnel shafts and delayed-action IEDs complicate every meter of movement.
Roadside bombs remain the signature threat to convoys in dense Gaza streets. Hamas has repeatedly used large command-wired charges and shaped explosives to target vehicles that edge off a cleared track or that pause near culverts and walls.
In a separate case earlier this year, three IDF soldiers were killed when a Humvee hit an IED along a marked route—an attack that underscored how terrorists seed or re-seed roads between passes.
Today’s blast fits that pattern, striking a trailing vehicle while an armored D9 bulldozer performed route-clearance up front—exactly the doctrine designed to absorb or expose hidden charges before lighter vehicles pass.
Who they were—and what Dekel does. Bahad 1 is the IDF’s officer-training base; in wartime it fields operational battalions, including Dekel, that deploy for frontline tasks while training continues under fire.
Cadets lead from the front, often returning to the schoolhouse only between rotations.
In national emergencies, Bahad 1 itself forms the backbone of the 261st Infantry Brigade, integrating cadets, instructors, and reservists for combat missions—precisely the profile of today’s force package in Rafah.
The bigger picture. Israel dismantled Hamas’s Rafah Brigade last year, then fought renewed pockets after the ceasefire collapsed and the IDF re-entered Rafah in force.
Since then, the military has framed Jenina as the last active node, with periodic evacuations and raids to uproot remaining cells, tunnels, and weapons caches.
That strategic arc explains the whiplash of “cleared but still dangerous”: a brigade can be defeated, while small teams continue to emplace bombs and probe IDF patrol patterns. Today’s attack is exactly that kind of insurgent aftershock.
What changes now. Expect an intensive forensic sweep of the blast site—metal fragments, trigger remnants, camera canvassing along the approach—and a rapid tactical adjustment: tighter interval behind D9s, additional plow passes on shoulders, and more overwatch to deter “mouse-hole” triggermen in adjacent structures.
Command will re-scrub routes in Jenina, but the mission stays the same: finish the pocket, keep pressure on remaining terrorists, and deny them the space to lay the next device.
The names released today are a stark cost of that grind—officers and officer-cadets doing what Bahad 1 was built for: leadership under fire.
