It is not only the tunnels that terrify the Israeli occupation forces in their ground operations inside the Gaza Strip, but rather the extreme valor of the resistance and the ambushes it sets up in front of an army armed with the latest equipment and machinery, so they do not know where death is coming from. What happened when the occupation attempted to “cleanse” the Shuja’iya neighborhood of Palestinian resistance fighters is clearer. An example of this, according to what the Israeli sources themselves narrate.
Military correspondents and Israeli media narrate the results of a preliminary investigation conducted by the occupation army into the battle of the Shuja’iya neighborhood between the Palestinian resistance and the Golani Brigade, where the investigation says that hundreds of fighters are hiding in tunnels, corridors and abandoned buildings, which inflicted on the occupation forces heavy losses among the leaders and soldiers.
The leaders of the Israeli army believe that it is not possible to defeat the resistance in the Shuja’iya neighborhood with aerial bombardment alone, and that this must be done on the ground. A senior officer in the occupation army explains that when the area is bombed from the air, the resistance men flee and then return to the same place, and that is why the leadership insists. Supreme Council that they have no alternative to fighting and working in the field.
But in a fight of this kind, when the occupation soldiers move from one location to another and from one building to another, “they do not know that they are in a confrontation until they are in a confrontation,” as the occupation leaders say.
In that battle, an Israeli combat team belonging to the 53rd Battalion worked to clear the buildings in Kasbah Al-Shuja’iya. A force of 4 soldiers headed by a major and a captain entered a building from two sides to clear it, but the resistance had placed an explosive device inside the building and fired hand grenades and bullets at them, wounding the Israeli soldiers. The four are the company commander, Major Moshe Avraham Bar-On, the platoon commander, Captain Lil Hayo, and the two fighters, Eran Aloni and his brother Daskel.
In addition, additional Israeli army forces that were outside the building were exposed to fire and fought a battle against the resistance, which led to a breakdown in communication between the forces and the four soldiers inside the building.
At this point, the occupation army was terrified that resistance elements had kidnapped the four soldiers through a tunnel opening in the building, so the Golani Brigade sent all its senior commanders to the battle site, including the neighboring sectors, with reinforcements to besiege the compound from several directions. An army force surrounded The occupation, led by Major General Tomer Greenberg, occupied the complex from the north, while the 53rd Brigade withdrew its forces, which suffered injuries, and a violent battle with the resistance continued for about 3 hours.
Meanwhile, the so-called Special Rescue Force 669 arrived at the complex and tried to break down the door, but the resistance was able to wound two soldiers in another ambush in nearby buildings and set fire to the entire entrance area of the complex. Major Ben Shelly and Colonel Rom Hecht were also wounded from the occupation army.
After the failure of these attempts, Brigadier General Yair Blay – whose command headquarters is located near the site of the battle – sent Colonel Yitzhak Ben Bashit, commander of the Golani Battalion in the Golani Brigade, and with him the deputy commander of the brigade, to the site of the battle in order to take control of the battle and work to divide the combat teams present in the field, and with the increase The number of Israeli forces in the area was widespread, and there was fear among their ranks that they would be exposed to fire from both sides.
The Israeli plan was to quickly reach the four soldiers who disappeared inside the building and prevent their kidnapping and the escape of resistance militants, as well as prevent the arrival of additional resistance forces from other directions, and rescue the wounded Israelis at the entrance to the complex.
The force from the Golani patrol arrived at the entrance of the building to rescue the injured from Rescue Force 669, but it was exposed to a violent confrontation from members of the Palestinian resistance who were shooting at the occupation soldiers from all sides. Colonel Ben Bashit was killed at this stage of the battle, while the soldiers of the patrol were able to Rescuing the injured, entering the building, and recovering the bodies of four soldiers, who were found to be dead and not kidnapped.
The matter did not end there, as another Israeli force led by Majd Tomer, which was stationed in a nearby building overlooking the area, fought a fierce battle with Palestinian militants who were in other buildings in the same complex. The resistance fired a missile from a nearby building, causing the collapse of the building in which the forces were stationed. The occupation also killed Major General Tomer along with his division commander, Major Roy Maldasi.
At this moment, the occupation used aerial fire to support its battle with the resistance factions from the north and west, to prevent Palestinian fighters from approaching the rest of the occupation army forces.
The fiercest battles
This is one of the violent battles of Shuja’iyya with the resistance factions, as the occupation army says that it tried for more than a week and a half to purge the fighters from the Shuja’iyya district, and it is claimed that it killed more than 350 of them during that period.
In the last days, after raiding the compounds, the occupation army found them empty, with guided sniper weapons, cameras, and machine guns, but there was no armed Palestinian resistance member.
The occupation army says that the Golani Brigade is no longer operating as a battalion, but rather as separate units due to the fierce battle in Shuja’iya, and it is estimated that it needs two to three days to “cleanse” the Kasbah and take operational control of it.
As for the reason for not bombing the complex from the air at the beginning of the battle, this is due – according to a senior officer in the occupation army – to the fact that they did not know the fate of the force of 4 fighters present inside the complex, and that is because the resistance that was firing from inside the building was using “M” weapons. -16”, which are the same weapons used by the Israeli army forces, which made it difficult for them to know whether the force members were alive or dead.
In addition, the occupation army says that it needs to carry out ground operations to collect data on detainees, collect intelligence materials about the Palestinian resistance movement (Hamas), and capture members of the resistance, but the Shuja’iya neighborhood was resistant to the occupation’s ground operations and suffered heavy loss of life. He was not the most pessimistic. One of the leaders of the occupation army imagined it, perhaps because of their fear that the resistance had kidnapped 4 additional Israeli soldiers.
According to Israeli sources, since the start of the aggression against Gaza on October 7, 444 soldiers and officers have been killed, including 115 killed since the ground incursion into the Gaza Strip two months ago, including 4 with the rank of colonel.