Mortar shell attack kills four IDF soldiers in Eshkol on Gaza border

Projectile attack injures a number of other people in southern Israel; names of four soldiers belonging to the Armored Corps released by IDF.

By BEN HARTMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Helicopter in front of Soroka University Medical Center. (photo credit: SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER)
Helicopter in front of Soroka University Medical Center.
(photo credit: SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER)
Video: Tovah Lazaroff
 
Four IDF soldiers were killed and others were seriously wounded in a mortar attack in the Eshkol Regional Council, next to the Gaza border, late Monday afternoon.
The IDF released the names of four soldiers late Monday night.
The four soldiers belonged to the Armored Corps. Their names are: Staff Sergeant Eliav Eliyahu Haim Kahlon, 22 of Safed; Private First Class Meidan Maymon Biton, 20 of Netivot; Niran Cohen, 20 of Tiberias; and Adi Briga, 23 of Beit Shikma. 
Ten people in total suffered harm from the attack. Emergency teams evacuated at lease nine people to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. Four of those injured were airlifted to the hospital.
Shortly after the mortar shell attack, a Code Red siren sounded in the area.
The head of the Eshkol Regional Council Haim Yellin urged civilians against visiting soldiers in the area.
Mortar shells and rockets have continued to be fired into the Eshkol region throughout every cease-fire that has been called since Operation Protective Edge has begun. Mortars do not set off the Code Red rocket siren and typically fall without warning.
The first Israeli civilian fatality of the operation was Dror Hanin, killed by a mortar strike near the Erez Crossing on July 15.