IDF Uncovers 15-Meter Shaft in Hebron After Fatal Ambush
Israeli forces located a narrow vertical structure near the residence of a suspect in Friday's attack that left two soldiers dead.
By Emma Mehta ·
Israeli military officials confirmed on Monday that troops had located a hidden underground shaft in the Hebron area of the West Bank.
The structure, which stands approximately 15 meters deep and features a narrow width, was discovered close to the home of one of the two Hamas operatives involved in Friday's attack. The IDF stated that an unidentified electronic device was recovered from within the shaft and handed over to investigators for analysis. This find follows a wide-scale search operation in which soldiers inspected roughly 500 Palestinian homes and other sites across the region. While subterranean combat infrastructure is frequently associated with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, such shafts remain rare in the West Bank, where the IDF maintains tighter surveillance. The discovery adds context to the engagement that resulted in two fatalities for the Search and Rescue Brigade.
The attack occurred when two armed terrorists arrived in a vehicle at the Judea Junction. The suspects, equipped with an M4 machine gun and a pistol, opened fire on soldiers present at the scene. The gunfire killed Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman, 23, from Ashkelon, and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem, 20, from Hod Hasharon. Roytman served as a squad commander, while Svilem was a combat soldier in the Ari Battalion. The IDF identified both men as members of the 775th unit.
The military continues its operations in the Hebron area to secure the zone and examine the evidence collected during the home searches. The electronic device remains in the custody of forensic teams. No further announcements regarding the status of the two attackers or additional suspects were made on Monday.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
