Eight IDF soldiers were killed when an armored personnel carrier exploded near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces said Saturday. Captain Wassem Mahmoud, 23-years-old from the northern Israeli village of Beit Jann, was named as one of the soldiers killed. The Israeli army does not yet know whether the explosion was caused by an explosive device placed by Hamas or by explosives the soldiers were carrying to lay mines in the area.
The explosion occurred early Saturday morning, when the armored personnel carrier the soldiers were in was traveling in the area of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, where several other vehicles had already passed through beforehand. The explosion completely destroyed the vehicle, and the eight soldiers inside were killed immediately. Mahmoud's relatives said that he has served in the Gaza Strip since the ground operation began.
His hand was injured by shrapnel early in the war, but Mahmoud refused to undergo surgery, wanting to return to fighting, his family added. Mahmoud is survived by his father Nur and Mother Na'ama, his brothers Hassan and Adam, and his sisters Riham and Marilyn. He was the family's youngest child.
"Wassem was a diligent young man, a beautiful soul, smart," his friend, Shareef Ganem, said of Mahmoud. The leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, stated in response to Mahmoud's death that "once again, we discover partnership and equality in the battlefield and in loss. This partn.