5/26/2024–|Last updated: 5/26/202403:41 PM (Mecca time)
For the first time since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Abu Ubaida, the military spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), issued a speech that was unusual in its timing and the information it contained.
After midnight, Abu Ubaida appeared in an audio speech in which he announced the capture and killing of a number of occupation soldiers in Jabalia. The occupation army spokesman, unusually, quickly issued a statement about two minutes later in which he said, “There is no incident of kidnapping of any soldier.”
What made the matter even more mysterious on the Israeli side was that the Hebrew media described the event as “exceptional.”
Abu Ubaida had announced after midnight that Al-Qassam fighters in the Jabalia camp had managed to lure a special occupation force into one of the tunnels, detonate explosive devices in it, clash with them, and cause its members to be killed or captured. He contented himself with publishing a short video clip of the body of one of the soldiers killed as a result of the ambush while being dragged into one of the tunnels. Tunnels.
The video concludes with the sentence, “This is what was allowed to be published…and the rest of the talk,” which indicates that the Al-Qassam Brigades are waiting for the occupation to announce the operation, so that the Al-Qassam Brigades reveal that the information they have may cause embarrassment to the occupation army and show its lack of credibility.
History repeats
Despite the unexceptional nature of the announcement of Israeli capture and denial, the event was repeated in a similar manner 10 years ago when the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the capture of soldier Shaul Aaron, the first soldier captured by the Palestinian resistance since 2006 after soldier Gilad Shalit, on July 20, 2014. During the Battle of Al-Asif Al-Makoul, the occupation announced that 11 soldiers were killed during the battles in the Gaza Strip, and did not mention any other details or losses.
On July 20, Abu Ubaida came out before dawn with a video recording that was unusual in his video messages and challenged the occupation to reveal its true losses. He said, “This soldier Shaul Aaron is a prisoner of the Qassam Brigades in this operation. If the enemy leadership is able to lie about the numbers… The dead and wounded, she must answer her audience about the fate of this soldier now,” and published his military number.
Aaron was part of an occupation force in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in the eastern Gaza Strip. They were lured into a pre-prepared minefield and detonated it with Israeli vehicles before advancing towards the two troop carriers and finishing off all the soldiers in them.
This operation resulted in the death of 14 Israeli soldiers, who were killed from zero range.
Israeli recognition
On the Israeli side, as soon as the Qassam announcement was issued, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations addressed the matter and denied the kidnapping of any occupation soldiers, claiming that the news was merely “rumors,” while the Israeli army spokesman refused to comment on the incident.
The Israeli media also contented themselves with transmitting the statement of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades regarding the capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza named Aaron Shaul, contenting itself with conveying the army’s response that it was examining the “allegations” mentioned by Abu Ubaida.
Two days after the incident – that is, on Tuesday, July 22, and in the wake of the scandal of trying to conceal what happened – the spokesman for the occupation army was forced to admit the presence of a soldier whose fate was unknown after the violent clash that took place two days ago between the resistance and soldiers from the Golani Brigade in the Shuja’iya neighborhood, and he said: He is believed to have been killed, although his body has not been found.
The Israeli Channel 10 broadcast on the same day that the military number of the missing Israeli soldier Shaul Aaron, which was announced by the Al-Qassam Brigades, is correct.
The channel said that an army armored vehicle was attacked, in which Shaun Aron was killed along with 6 other soldiers. As a result of the large fire that broke out in the vehicle, the bodies of only 6 soldiers were found, without providing evidence of Aron’s death.
Since that time, Al-Qassam has kept Aaron, who was later joined by 3 others: Hadar Golden, Hisham Al-Sayyid, and Avira Mengistu, whom the occupation refused to negotiate with. Al-Qassam announced that it had lost contact with the cell responsible for these prisoners on January 13 of last year.
Soldiers and special units
Abu Ubaida’s brief announcement and the subsequent Israeli denial and secrecy sparked a wave of speculation about the nature of the military force that took place in the Al-Qassam ambush. Many analysts indicated that the unit might be a special unit, as the clothing of the soldier who appeared in the Al-Qassam video was not military clothing, and that The shoes he is wearing are not the shoes of the Paratroopers Brigade (brown with long boots), and they are not the shoes of fighters from another brigade.
Some suggested that it was a unit affiliated with the Israeli Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet) or another special unit.
Others resorted to analyzing the weapon that appeared in the Al-Qassam video as a Czech weapon of the “CZ Scubaruin” type, pointing out that this weapon is only used by elite special units and the navy in particular, and suggesting that it is from the Shayetet Commando Unit 13.
Whether these speculations are true or not, the news remains certain for the Al-Qassam Brigades, which is conducting a media battle with high professionalism, as observers describe it, with the same ability and professionalism with which it is managing its military battle.
