Al-Qassam Brigades ambush IOF forces in Rafah tunnel operation
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Al-Qassam Brigades executed a deadly ambush in Rafah, targeting an IOF engineering unit with explosives and anti-tank shells, causing heavy casualties amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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Masked fighters from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a military wing of Hamas, march with their weapons along the main road of Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, October 28, 2021. (AP)
The al-Qassam Brigades released a statement providing a detailed account of the ambush that targeted IOF forces in Rafah on Saturday, at the height of "Israel's" genocidal war on Gaza.
Al-Qassam Brigades said that their fighters successfully drew an Israeli engineering unit toward a tunnel entrance that had been pre-rigged with explosives. The operation began with direct engagement, during which the fighters killed several members of the unit at point-blank range.
The Palestinian Resistance group said that as additional Israeli soldiers moved closer to the tunnel, their fighters triggered the explosives, causing significant casualties among the troops, including deaths and injuries, before engaging two Israeli tanks with al-Yassin 105 shells in a follow-up attack.
They stated that their fighters monitored Israeli forces attempting to retrieve casualties from the ambush site located east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, observing the evacuation efforts in the aftermath of the attack.
Al-Qassam Brigades announced that on Saturday, their fighters activated an anti-personnel explosive device targeting a six-soldier Israeli infantry unit near al-Zahraa Mosque in al-Janina neighborhood, east of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, resulting in enemy casualties.
The Israeli occupation military confirmed on Sunday that two soldiers, including an officer, had been killed and that several others had been wounded as confrontations continued in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli occupation forces' spokesperson stated that an officer from the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit had been killed during clashes in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip and that another soldier from the same unit had also been killed in the same area.
The incident, described by Israeli outlets as "difficult," occurred as a Golani Brigade force operating under the 36th Division was combing a building and discovered the tunnel entrance. At some point during the operation, an explosive, previously undetected, detonated, leading to the fatalities.
The Israeli occupation forces reported that in the same encounter, another soldier from the Yahalom unit had sustained critical injuries, while separately, a reserve soldier from the 7007 Battalion of the Jerusalem [al-Quds] (16th) Brigade had also been critically wounded during clashes in northern Gaza on Saturday.
