5/22/2024–|Last updated: 5/22/202410:33 AM (Mecca time)
The Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – announced on Wednesday morning that an Israeli force of 10 soldiers had ambushed a compound north of Beit Hanoun. In return, the Israeli occupation army said that 10 brigades are currently fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Qassam said that its fighters “managed to ensnare a foot Zionist force of 10 soldiers in a night ambush after targeting it with a thunderbolt and throwing hand grenades at it.”
She added that as soon as the rescue force arrived, “our mujahideen detonated a stun device inside it, killing and wounding members of the two forces” near the agricultural school north of Beit Hanoun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
In developments in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Al-Qassam Brigades statement indicated that its combat units on the ground destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the Brazil neighborhood, southeast of the city of Rafah.
In the same place, Al-Qassam’s statement indicated that its fighters targeted two D-9 military bulldozers with a “Yassin 105” shell and a “Shawaz” device.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also confirmed in a separate statement that the resistance fighters targeted an Israeli troop carrier with a Tandom shell in the vicinity of Salah al-Din Gate, southeast of the city of Rafah.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also broadcast pictures of an Israeli soldier being sniped in the Netzarim axis, southwest of Gaza City, and also broadcast pictures of Israeli crowds being bombarded with mortar shells in the same area.
Escalation of the fight
On the other hand, Israeli Army Radio reported that 10 brigades are currently fighting in the Gaza Strip, in an unprecedented escalation of fighting since the beginning of the year.
In turn, the Association for Families of Israeli Prisoners said that it would publish a video clip showing the kidnapping of female soldiers from an army control room on October 7.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli occupation army, Herzi Halevy, said that the war in the Gaza Strip “will be prolonged.”
Halevy added – during his inspection of his forces in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip – that Israel aims to “kill the largest possible number of Palestinian faction leaders and “destroy the infrastructure” in the Strip to pressure the return of its prisoners.
Halevy continued, “The army is prepared to carry out risky missions to recover the living kidnappers and the bodies of the dead kidnappers in order to bury them in Israel.”
In a related context, the Israeli army announced this morning that a soldier was seriously injured in battles in the northern Gaza Strip.
Yesterday evening, the occupation army announced that 3 soldiers were seriously injured in the Gaza Strip, and said that forces from the 98th Division were continuing their fighting in the Jabalia area, while the 99th Division was fighting in the center of the Gaza Strip.
In the Rafah area, the Israeli army said that forces from the 162nd Division were continuing their military operations there.
Since their invasion of the Gaza Strip by land on October 27, 2023, the Israeli forces have faced fierce resistance from the Palestinian factions, which, according to the Israeli army’s announced toll, led to the killing of 282 officers and soldiers out of 631 killed since the beginning of the war on October 7.
1,752 Israeli officers and soldiers were injured since the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, out of a total of 3,543 soldiers injured since the beginning of the war.
On a daily basis, Palestinian factions announce the killing and wounding of Israeli soldiers and the destruction of military vehicles, and broadcast video clips documenting some of their operations.
The Israeli authorities face local accusations of covering up a much larger toll of deaths and injuries among the army’s ranks.