The occupation army acknowledged this evening, Saturday, the killing of 8 soldiers in the battles of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, after the Al-Qassam Brigades announced this morning that they had carried out a complex ambush in the city and killed 8 Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli army said, in a brief statement, that 8 soldiers were killed in battles in the southern Gaza Strip, one of whom was Captain Waseem Mahmoud, deputy company commander in the 601st Engineering Battalion, while the names of the other dead and their military ranks were not yet permitted to be published.
The Al-Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters were able to kill a group of Israeli soldiers in an ambush represented by a combined operation against occupation army vehicles penetrating the Saudi neighborhood of Tal al-Sultan, west of the city of Rafah.
Al-Qassam explained that it targeted a D9 bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 missile 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 missile, 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.”
Calling fighters
To prevent the bodies of dead soldiers from being kidnapped, the Israeli army summoned fighters by air and land with the aim of preventing the kidnapping of the bodies of soldiers in the armored vehicle bombing in Rafah, according to the Israeli Channel 13.
The channel reported that the Israeli army is still active in the area where the armored vehicle was targeted, and that the armored vehicle was targeted while it was moving, and the army took two hours to reach it.
Israeli sources said that the armored vehicle exploded violently after it was targeted due to the presence of explosives inside it, which led to the death of everyone inside it. The army estimates that it was targeted by an explosive device that was attached to the armored vehicle while it was moving.
Demands to end the war
After announcing the killing of the eight Israeli soldiers, the families of the prisoners and dead soldiers demanded an end to the war as part of a deal that would bring everyone back, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
The Broadcasting Corporation quoted the families of the prisoners and dead soldiers as confirming that the continuation of the war would lead to the loss of the lives of detainees and soldiers.
They said, “Our children were killed and the government abandoned them, but there are hostages who can be saved,” as they put it.
Fighting for hours
On the other hand, Israeli media reported that fierce battles had been taking place in the Rafah area since the noon hours, amid a media blackout about the results of these battles.
The occupation army said in a statement that the forces of the combat team of the commando formation operating within the 162nd Division continued this week raid operations in the Rafah area, and also targeted what the statement called “terrorist infrastructure” under intelligence directives.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also published pictures that it said were of its fighters confronting the occupation forces in Rafah, and air defense forces confronting an Israeli helicopter in the areas of advance in the city of Rafah.
It broadcast pictures that it said were of targeting the headquarters of the Israeli occupation army and the forces stationed in the “Netzarim” axis with “Rajoum” missiles.
Israel continues its war despite two UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah, take measures to prevent acts of genocide, and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
