While negotiating the release of Israeli hostages languishing in Gaza captivity since October 7, 2023, the terror group Hamas, on Wednesday, tried to take another Israeli hostage.
Hamas terrorists murdered an Israeli soldier as they failed to abduct him and take him into a terror tunnel in southern Gaza. The soldier, identified by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as 25-year-old Master Sergeant Abraham Azulay, who was operating an engineering vehicle, heroically fought back and prevented terrorists from taking him hostage alive.
Reserve soldier, MStg. “Abraham Azulay was killed in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip after terrorists emerging from a tunnel attempted to abduct him,” the Jerusalem Post reported, citing IDF sources. “Azulay fought back and was killed by gunfire. A security team at the scene opened fire, struck several terrorists, and thwarted the abduction attempt.”
Having failed to capture Azulay alive, terrorists tried to take his body as a bargaining chip — a depraved but common Hamas practice of using dead Israelis to bolster its position during hostage talks, Israeli media reports suggest.
Azulay, a resident of Israel’s Samaria region, had recently gotten married. “Azulay will be laid to rest Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem,” the Israel National News reported. “A resident of the Shaked Farm in the hills of Itamar, he is survived by his wife Ruth, whom he married only three months ago, as well as his parents and siblings.”
Hamas, in a statement, admitted carrying out the failed attempt to capture an IDF soldier, The Times of Israel reported Thursday:
An Israeli soldier was killed during an abduction attempt by terrorists who also attempted to snatch his body in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday.He was later named as Master Sgt. (res.) Abraham Azulay, 25, a heavy engineering operator in the Southern Command’s combat engineering unit, from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar.Azulay got married just three months before he was killed, and is survived by his wife, Ruth, and his parents and siblings.According to an ongoing IDF probe, several Hamas gunmen emerged from a tunnel and attacked Israeli troops in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.During the attack, gunmen attempted to abduct Azulay, who had been operating an excavator.He “struggled with them and the terrorists shot and killed him,” said the military.The gunmen then tried to make off with Azulay’s body, but other Israeli forces guarding the area opened fire on the operatives, thwarting the attempt, the army said.Earlier Wednesday, Hamas’s military wing announced its gunmen had attempted to capture a soldier east of Khan Younis, but that the “field conditions did not allow for it, so they killed him and seized his weapon.”
A post on X/Twitter apparently shows Azulay using an armoured bulldozer to destroy a terrorist infrastructure during his nearly 30-week service in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli civilians continue to endure the Palestinian terrorist threat at home. On Thursday, a 20-year-old man was murdered in a terrorist attack in Israel’s Judea region. The attack was carried out by two Palestinian terrorists from a nearby town. “Following the report regarding a terrorist attack in the Gush Etzion Junction, two terrorists arrived at the scene and conducted a combined shooting and stabbing attack,” the IDF said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
The terrorists were taken out by the Israeli troops at the scene. The IDF was carrying out a counter-terrorism operation in the area following the deadly attack. “IDF soldiers and additional security personnel at the scene fired toward the terrorists and eliminated them,” the IDF added. “IDF soldiers are currently encircling Halhul and establishing roadblocks in the area.”
The Israeli news website Ynetnews reported the details of the attack:
A man in his early 20s was killed Thursday in a shooting and stabbing attack near the Gush Etzion Mall in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said. Two Palestinian assailants were shot and killed at the scene by security forces and armed civilians.The victim was initially reported in critical condition, but Magen David Adom paramedics said he showed no pulse or signs of breathing upon their arrival. “We performed medical tests but unfortunately, his injuries were severe and we had to pronounce him dead,” said one of the paramedics.The attack was described as a combined shooting and stabbing assault. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the attackers arrived at the scene, carried out the assault and were quickly shot by IDF soldiers and other security personnel present.(…)Eyewitnesses reported that the attackers opened fire in the mall’s parking area. A civilian who initially approached the victim said his personal firearm appeared to have been taken by the assailants and used against him at close range. Other civilians at the scene reportedly returned fire and helped neutralize the attackers.
As part of a renewed military initiative to destroy Hezbollah’s terrorist buildup along the Israeli border, the IDF destroyed a terror command center in southern Lebanon.
On Wednesday night, “the IDF struck a Hezbollah military command center from which Hezbollah terrorists operated in the area of Yohmor in southern Lebanon,” the Israeli military said in a statement Thursday. “The command center operated under the cover of a civilian structure, demonstrating Hezbollah’s systematic exploitation of the civilian population to advance terrorist attacks against the state of Israel.”
The news comes as the IDF carried out ground raids in southern Lebanon for the first time on this scale since a ceasefire was agreed in November 2024. The Iran-backed Shia-Jihadist group has repeatedly tried to regroup its terrorist forces and fortify its infrastructure in the area in violation of the U.S.-brokered truce.
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