6/16/2024–|Last updated: 6/16/202403:09 AM (Mecca time)
The Israeli Walla website said – on Saturday – that there was widespread criticism among reserve forces officers against the political leadership after the killing of 8 soldiers in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, in an ambush by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
This comes as Israeli media and sources revealed new details about the ambush, which Al-Qassam confirmed was a combined operation against occupation army vehicles, including a troop carrier, which was penetrating the Saudi neighborhood of Tal al-Sultan, west of the city of Rafah, and was blown up in a minefield.
The Israeli website added that after the operation there was a feeling among reserve officers that there was no clear goal for many of the missions in the Gaza Strip, and that the pattern of the entire Rafah operation was progressing in an “incomplete” manner and should have been completed faster.
An Israeli officer was also quoted as saying that the operations in Rafah had become the center of criticism in the field, and that they should have been carried out in a different way.
Guerrilla war
On the other hand, Israeli Channel 12 said that the Israeli army had a lot of time to prepare to prevent incidents such as targeting the troop carrier in Rafah.
She added that there are many questions about what happened to the troop carrier, and there is no doubt that the army will investigate the matter, noting that there are still forces waging a “guerrilla war” in Gaza that are capable of harming the army, as she put it.
Israeli Channel 13 also revealed that the army did not succeed, over the course of two hours, in carrying out any operation to rescue the soldiers in the troop carrier.
She pointed out that the tanker explosion came during an army operation that targeted 50 Palestinian fighters in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood.
In turn, the New York Times, citing Israeli military officials, said that the severity of the troop carrier explosion made identifying the bodies of the soldiers difficult.
The Israeli occupation army acknowledged the killing of 8 of its soldiers and officers as a result of the bombing of an armored vehicle in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, after the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that it had carried out a complex operation in the Saudi neighborhood area west of the city.#News #Gaza_War pic.twitter.com/joU2hXXw3c
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) June 15, 2024
Compound process
The Al-Qassam Brigades had announced earlier on Saturday that its fighters had managed to kill a group of Israeli soldiers in an ambush in a combined operation against occupation army vehicles penetrating the Saudi neighborhood in Rafah.
Al-Qassam explained that it targeted a D9 bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 shell in the Saudi neighborhood, killing and wounding its crew. Immediately upon the arrival of a rescue force, it targeted a Tiger troop carrier with an Al-Yassin 105 shell, which led to its destruction and the killing of all its members.
The Israeli army did not provide details about the location of the killing of its soldiers in the south of the Gaza Strip, but several Israeli accounts on social media platforms said, “At approximately five o’clock in the morning local time, an anti-missile was launched at an armored vehicle containing 8 soldiers and officers, and it exploded immediately and the area was completely engulfed in flames.” All the soldiers were inside, and the eight were killed instantly and burned inside the vehicle.”