Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 110?

Hamas forces fired a rocket-propelled grenade on multiple adjacent structures, which along with landmines that the IDF forces had collected and brought into the buildings, caused a total collapse that killed 21 soldiers and injured several others on Monday.

The incident occurred around 4:00 p.m. in Maghazi in central Gaza, only 600 meters from the border fence close to Kissufim.

In addition, right after Hamas’s attackers had attacked the soldiers in the buildings, an IDF tank noticed the attackers, and started to maneuver its turret toward them.

However, before it could fire, Hamas fired a separate rocket-propelled grenade at the tank, which killed two IDF soldiers and injured two others.

Details of the massive explosion are being investigated

It was unclear if the soldiers had violated procedures by bringing the landmines into the structures with them and also unclear how much the collapse of the building was caused by the RPG versus the secondary landmines explosions.

Palestinians at the site of an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 17, 2023. (credit: ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90)

Moreover, it was unclear if the large volume of soldiers in the building at the time should have been there, or if the forces should have been more spread out to avoid the possibility of one large ambush.

Further, it was unclear whether the landmines were brought into the structures fully shielded and covered or with more unprotected explosive substances.

However, in a third update later Tuesday, IDF sources said that there was some evidence that the collapse was not caused by the landmines.

There were other adjacent structures also with soldiers and landmines which did not collapse.

The IDF forces who were harmed were mostly reservists from Unit 8208 assigned to clear certain areas of dangerous items, such as mines, or in this case, to use the mines to destroy certain structures which were viewed as presenting a threat to future Israeli southern residents' security.

Rescue activities went on for hours with the brigade commander having been on site from the start of the incident and the brigadier general in charge of the entire Gaza defense division, arriving shortly after.

Late Tuesday, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi flew down to the site from the northern border, cancelling his original schedule to view the situation firsthand.

Halevi said, “The State of Israel woke up this morning to a painful and difficult update: 21 dead, among the best of our country who volunteered to defend their homeland.”

He emphasized the need to continue the war going forward to return security to Israel’s southern residents.

It was unclear what happened to the Hamas attackers, but IDF sources suggested they probably escaped.

The IDF is expected to probe how to avoid having such a large volume of soldiers in one spot to avoid future large losses all at once.