IDF announces fallen soldier Eviatar Ben Yehuda, killed in West Bank

IDF announces fallen soldier Eviatar Ben Yehuda, killed in West Bank

YONAH JEREMY BOB / JERUSALEM POST STAFF


The Jerusalem Post understands that the wounded officer was the commander of Battalion 8211 from the Efraim Brigade in the northern West Bank.

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Staff-Sergeant Eviatar Ben Yehuda / (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

The IDF announced on Monday that IDF soldier Staff-Sergeant Evyatar Ben Yehuda was killed and that another IDF officer was severely wounded in an incident in the West Bank.

The Jerusalem Post understands that the wounded officer was the commander of Battalion 8211 from the Efraim Brigade in the northern West Bank.

A David vehicle holding the two soldiers ran over an improvised explosive device during a proactive IDF raid in the Tamun area of the Menashe region.

Improvised explosive devices have been a more frequent problem in the West Bank since the 2023-2024 Middle East 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 IDF 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

IDF soldiers operate in the West Bank, January 19, 2025 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)

The IDF did not provide how many times this had happened, but it had already reported on several such instances over the summer. 

Major incident in Jenin

Another major incident was a June 27 incident in Jenin in which one soldier was killed and 22 were wounded.

Yet another incident was 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 could 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 IDF said that 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, D-9s 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 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.


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