Yedidya Boskovitz, a soldier serving in the Kfir Brigade's haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion, sustained light shrapnel wounds during the tragic incident that occurred on Monday in the Beit Hanoun area in the northern Gaza Strip.
Lying in a hospital bed, Boskovitz recounted the dramatic moments and remarked: "It was a terrible night, evacuation under fire, my friends were killed, I was wounded by shrapnel."
Despite the injury and the sorrow, he emphasized the fighting spirit, stating: "We won't break, we will keep going with full force in our fight against evil and terrorists. Netzah Yehuda is a battalion of heroes. May my friends' memories be a blessing."
Earlier in the morning, the IDF announced that five soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion were killed, and 14 others were injured, two of them seriously, when an explosive device detonated in the Beit Hanoun area in northern Gaza.
The soldiers are: Staff Sergeant Meir Shimon Amar, aged 20, from Jerusalem, Sergeant Moshe Nissim Frech, aged 20, from Jerusalem, Sergeant First Class (res.) Benyamin Asulin, aged 28, from Haifa, Staff Sergeant Noam Aharon Musgadian, aged 20, from Jerusalem, and Staff Sergeant Moshe Shmuel Noll, aged 21, from Beit Shemesh.
The deadly incident occurred Monday night at around 10:00 p.m. A force from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Kfir Brigade was advancing on foot along a route near operating tanks and engineering vehicles. The troops entered a field containing explosive devices, which detonated. During the subsequent evacuation efforts, the force came under gunfire in a combined terrorist ambush.
The tragedy in Beit Hanoun is the deadliest in Gaza since the Khan Yunis incident two weeks ago, when an officer and six combat engineering soldiers were killed by an explosive device detonated in an armored personnel carrier.