Four IDF soldiers were killed and at least three others were seriously wounded after Hamas fired ten rockets toward the Kerem Shalom area along the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday afternoon.
The four slain soldiers were identified as St.-Sgt. Ruben Marc Mordechai Assouline, 19, from Ra'anana; St.-Sgt. Ido Testa, 19, from Jerusalem; St.-Sgt. Tal Shavit, 21, from Kfar Giladi; and Sgt. Michael Ruzal, 18, from Rishon Lezion. Assouline and Testa served in the Shaked Battalion in the Givati Brigade. Shavit and Ruzal served in the 931st Battalion in the Nahal Brigade.
Soroka Medical Center stated that it received 10 people wounded in the attack, including three in serious condition, two in moderate condition, and five in light condition.
Shortly after the attack, the IDF closed the Kerem Shalom crossing located in the area, halting the entry of humanitarian aid trucks through the crossing which serves as the main entry point for aid.
Several people received medical treatment on the spot for injuries sustained from the rocket fire, and were evacuated to hospitals for immediate medical care. The Eshkol Regional Council announced that one of the people wounded was a resident of the Eshkol Regional Council.
Additionally, a home in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom was hit and damaged, according to the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries were reported in the impact in Kibbutz Kerem Shalom.
Hamas took responsibility for the rocket fire, saying their Al-Qassam Brigades targeted the Kerem Shalom area with 114 mm short-range "Rajoum" rockets.
The rockets were fired from only a couple hundred meters from the Rafah humanitarian crossing, one of the few areas where IDF soldiers still have not entered since the October 27 invasion of Gaza. The IDF said it had some generic intelligence warnings about intent to launch such attacks on IDF soldiers and that there was some kind of rocket alert warning in real-time.
Responding to the rocket attacks, the air force increased its attacks on Hamas command centers and other sites in Rafah, as well as against the locations of the rocket attacks themselves, which it appears came from underground attack platforms.
IDF strikes Rafah area in response
Shortly after the attack, Palestinian media reported a series of Israeli airstrikes in the Rafah area.
. Over the last few days, in separate incidents: Hamas shot mortars at the corridor for humanitarian purposes Hamas disrupted aid from…
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) May 5, 2024
"Hamas is intentionally preventing aid from reaching the people of Gaza," wrote the Foreign Ministry on X, pointing to the rocket fire toward Kerem Shalom, disruptions of the movement of aid from southern to northern Gaza, and the firing of mortars at a corridor used for humanitarian purposes.
President Isaac Herzog responded to the Hamas attack on Sunday afternoon, posting on X: "Hamas attack humanitarian aid because they don’t care for humanity. The world must act to release the hostages and free the people of Gaza from Hamas’s vicious rule."
Unclear what effects Hamas's attack will have on Rafah plans
It was unclear what impact Hamas's latest attack would have on Israeli plans to invade Rafah.
More specifically, whether Israel would move forward sooner to invade Rafah or would still give ongoing hostage negotiations a chance to resolve before taking broader action.
It was also unclear whether if no ceasefire is reached, how prepared IDF soldiers in Gaza, and especially near humanitarian aid centers, would be for additional similar Hamas rocket attacks.
There were questions as well about whether Israeli civilians returning to the Kerem Shalom area in July as scheduled would be impacted and delayed by the current incident.