The IDF announced on Monday that at around 8:30 a.m. Sgt.-Maj. Eviatar Ben Yehuda was killed, and another officer was severely wounded in the West Bank when a David vehicle holding the two soldiers ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) during a proactive raid in the Tammun area of the Menashe region.
The Jerusalem Post understands that the wounded officer was the commander of Battalion 8211 from the Efraim Brigade in the northern West Bank and that he was evacuated to a hospital for medical care.
IEDs have been a more frequent problem in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas War took off, with Iran providing more powerful weapons and Palestinian terror groups learning new tactics for ambushing some IDF armored vehicles.
In August 2024, the military announced that four soldiers were wounded in Tubas in the northern West Bank after their partially armored David vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive.
The IDF did not say how often this had happened, but it had already reported on several such instances over the summer and another incident earlier in January.
An even more serious major incident happened on June 27 in Jenin in which one soldier was killed and 22 were wounded.
Major incident in Jenin
Another occurred earlier in August when two soldiers were moderately wounded, and another two soldiers were lightly wounded.
During the June 27 incident, a Panther armored vehicle drove over a road where there was one of multiple planted explosive devices underground.
The road had already been bulldozed and “cleared” by an IDF D-9 bulldozer to ensure that such hidden improvised explosive devices would not ambush the soldiers.
The initial injuries to the soldiers within the Panther were much more limited, but nearby Palestinians activated a second improvised explosive device – possibly remotely – against the rescuers.
During the June 27 incident, the military said the D-9 missed the explosive devices because they were buried at a much deeper depth than usual.
Until then, the devices had been buried around 40-50 centimeters under a road.
These devices were probably placed around 1.5 meters deep.
According to public records, the D-9’s standard digging depth cuts off at less than 70 centimeters.
Of course, if a D-9 does multiple runs through a specific area, it can go much deeper, but this creates other operational dilemmas when operating in a hostile environment and trying to maintain an element of surprise and quick and decisive action.
Back in June, the IDF was unclear about how it would overcome such ambushes if the Palestinians copied their success in the future, and based on numerous such incidents, it does not seem that the military has arrived at a solution.
This is true even as no D-9 was used in the area where the soldiers operated in Tammun. Rather, the area was not considered dangerous, so a D-9 was not considered necessary.
Yet, IDF sources admitted that even in areas where D-9s are used, the solutions the military is working on to fully defend against IEDs under roads are not yet ready.
IDF sources said they hoped to soon have more Eitan vehicles, which have greater resistance to IEDs, once parts of the Nahal Brigade deploy from Gaza back to the West Bank as part of the current ceasefire.
Other vehicles, such as the Namer, do not seem to be on the way in large numbers for use in the West Bank and will likely remain focused on threats from the North and the South.
Meanwhile, the IDF fired warning shots toward Hamas forces operating in the vicinity of its new defensive ceasefire lines in the late morning, the Post learned on Monday.
Although the military has not yet issued a public statement on the issue, and generally, all signs are that Hamas is seeking to maintain the ceasefire conditions, which went into effect on Sunday at 11:15 a.m., not everything is quiet.
According to the IDF, when the Hamas forces started to approach closer to their position, and the military fired warning shots, the Gazans retreated and moved away from the Israeli forces without any counterfire or resistance.
Further, the IDF said it remained committed to holding all defense lines set down by the ceasefire and would respond with force to any Gazans who approached those lines in any potentially threatening way.
During the ceasefire with Hezbollah, which started on November 27, the IDF has killed around 50 of the Lebanese terror group’s forces when they tried to violate the ceasefire conditions in one way or another.
Some anticipated that Hamas would do the same and try to regularly test whether military forces at their defense lines would hold their ground. However, the IDF is due to start larger withdrawals already this coming Saturday, whereas Hezbollah had to wait for a longer period. As such, it is possible that Hamas will show more patience with testing the IDF, given that it has a shorter wait for the intermediate military withdrawals.
There are larger questions about whether the IDF will fully withdraw from Gaza during Phase 2 of the ceasefire deal after 42 days have passed or whether Israel and Hamas may return to war at that point.
On Monday, Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir toured areas where the IDF is redeploying as part of the ceasefire deal, as well as the construction projects along the Gaza border, which the ministry is carrying out to support the military’s redeployment. One of the aims is to strengthen the defense of border communities and highways.Zamir also visited the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.