The specific operations carried out by the Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip show that there is a shift in the approach with which they resist the Israeli occupation forces, as the resistance fighters have now gone beyond individual operations to martyrdom operations, as well as complex ambushes or death ambushes.
In a previous video clip by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the slogan appeared: “We do not surrender… we win or we die.” Al-Qassam published the video on December 14, which coincided with the anniversary of the launch of the Hamas movement.
The clip was to announce the Al-Faluga ambush carried out by Al-Qassam fighters west of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to a report broadcast by Tel Aviv Tribune, the Al-Faluga ambush concealed hidden messages indicating a shift in the nature of the brigades’ fighting and its entry into a new phase whose slogan is qualitative martyrdom operations from “zero distance,” the phrase that the Qassam Brigades have used to describe their attacks since the 2014 war.
In the same context, the Brigades announced – yesterday, Friday – that they had carried out an operation that they described as a complex security operation in the Jabalia camp, leaving members of an Israeli force dead and wounded.
Regarding the details of the operation, the Brigades said in a statement that “a Qassam mujahideen was able to finish off a Zionist sniper and his assistant from zero distance in the Jabalia camp.” She pointed out that an hour later, “the Mujahid disguised himself as the occupation soldiers, and was able to reach a Zionist force consisting of 6 soldiers and blow himself up with an explosive belt in the force, causing them to be killed and wounded.”
According to what military and strategic expert Elias Hanna told Tel Aviv Tribune earlier, the martyrdom operation in Jabalia is the first inside Gaza since 2002.
For his part, the military and strategic expert, Colonel Hatem Karim Al-Falahi, indicated – in a previous analysis on Tel Aviv Tribune – that the Al-Qassam operation in the Jabalia camp “represents a new stage in the tactics of the Palestinian resistance,” considering the use of the explosive belt in the heart of a closed military zone a “remarkable development” in The type of operations targeting the Israeli army.
Fierce resistance
For about 80 days, the Israeli occupation army has besieged areas in the northern Gaza Strip, and under military pressure, it is trying to displace their residents south, as part of what has become known as the “generals’ plan.”
However, the occupation army is facing fierce resistance on the ground, whose title is “victory or martyrdom,” which is the saying with which the Al-Qassam Brigades used to end their statements.
The Al-Qassam Brigades say that they killed 60 Israeli officers and soldiers, and wounded hundreds of others during the last 77 days. 17 of the dead soldiers were killed by snipers.
According to Nusaybah Musa’s report on Tel Aviv Tribune, the operations of the Al-Qassam Brigades during the 45 days of the war confirm that they adopted the approach of complex ambushes or what they call death ambushes, which are based on luring Israeli forces into booby-trapped areas or buildings and then finishing off those who remain alive.
On the other hand, recent days have witnessed an escalation in “zero distance” attacks carried out by Al-Qassam fighters in the areas of the northern Gaza Strip, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and in the Jabalia camp in particular. Among these is what Al-Qassam announced last Thursday that one of its fighters stabbed an Israeli officer and 3 soldiers from the Gaza Strip. Point zero, finishing them off, and seizing their personal weapons in Jabalia camp.
This was the first operation of its kind to occur in the Gaza Strip.
The Qassam Brigades then announced that a fighter had killed an Israeli soldier next to a Merkava tank, seized his weapon, and thrown two hand grenades into the tank west of the city of Beit Lahia.
The Tel Aviv Tribune report concluded that with individual martyrdom attacks, or what are known militarily as “lone wolf” attacks, the approach of the Qassam attacks in the northern Gaza Strip changes, “and this is nothing but a translation of the Qassam slogan of victory or martyrdom.”
