The three IDF soldiers killed Wednesday morning actively sought to engage and liquidate a terrorist cell, hoping to save Israeli lives in the future.
The incident occurred when the IDF identified an armed terrorist cell near the Gaza border fence, between Kibbutz Be'eri and the Nahal Oz crossing. It will be recalled that just last week, terrorists from Gaza infiltrated into Israel and murdered two Israelis working at the Nachal Oz fuel depot.
Givati Brigade infantry forces crossed over the border into Gaza in pursuit of the terrorists. In the ensuing battle, which turned out to be a Hamas ambush, terrorist fire killed the three, and wounded three others, including two in moderate condition.
The names of all the victims were released following notification of their families. Matan Ovdati, 19, of the Negev town Patish, will be buried at 6:30 PM on Wednesday in the military section of the local cemetery in Ofakim. The army announced that Ovdati was promoted posthumously to the rank of Sgt.
A second victim was Manhash al-Baniyat, 20, of the Bedouin village Kasifa in the Negev. He was to have been married in two months. The third victim was David Papian, 19, of Tel Aviv.
"Day in and day out, we are engaged in complex and dangerous counter-terrorism activity," IDF sources stated after the costly battle.
Military commentator Ron Ben-Yishai of the daily Yediot Acharonot says that the Hamas ambush was an imitation of Hizbullah attacks along the Israeli-Lebanese before the Second Lebanon War. "Hamas has learned," Ben-Yishai feels, "that sporadic Kassam rocket attacks against Israel are not as effective, and are more harmful to Hamas in terms of international public relations, than attacking IDF patrols along the fence."
"Hamas correctly perceives that its guerilla warfare along the border does not create internal Israeli pressure upon the government to execute a major offensive in Gaza," Ben-Yishai opines.
Hamas took great pride in the battle today, saying eight terrorists had attacked the Israelis from two sides. None of the terrorists were assumed to have been killed, though nine others were killed in an Israel Air Force strike afterwards.
Learned analyses notwithstanding, Hamas fired off an estimated 20 Kassam rockets at Israel today, causing some damage but no physical wounds.