Al-Qassam executes complex Rafah op; IOF troops killed, wounded

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Sep 2024 15:08
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The Palestinian Resistance launches complex operations against Israeli occupation forces in Gaza and fires rockets toward Israeli settlements.

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A screengrab of a video showing the targeting of an Israeli military vehicle in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah City, in the southern Gaza Strip (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media).

The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas Resistance movement, reported that several Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded in a complex operation in al-Jenenah neighborhood, east of Rafah in southern Gaza.

The operation, as per the statement, involved targeting a D9 military bulldozer with an Al Yassin-105 shell near the Abdullah al-Rahman Mosque. Following this, when Israeli military reinforcement forces arrived at the scene, they were also targeted by another Al Yassin-105 shell. This attack reportedly resulted in casualties among the reinforcement forces.

Resistance factions in Rafah debunk Israeli claims

The Israeli military had previously claimed on September 12 that the 162nd Division, which had been operating in Rafah for three months, had successfully dismantled the Al-Qassam Brigades' presence in the area.

Despite these claims, the Palestinian Resistance continues to mount a strong defense against Israeli forces for the 345th consecutive day, executing high-impact operations across the Gaza Strip and achieving confirmed hits on Israeli personnel and equipment.

In a related development, Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Gaza reported that several rockets landed in the Netzarim Axis, which separates northern and southern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli Channel 12, citing military sources, confirmed that the Palestinian Resistance remains actively engaged in combat within Gaza and is capable of causing significant damage to Israeli soldiers. The channel noted that the Israeli military is struggling to defeat Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah and might end the military operation without achieving its intended objectives.

IOF far from defeating Hamas in Rafah, 'Israel' in an 'endless tunnel'

The Israeli military has not managed to defeat even a single battalion or company of the Hamas Resistance forces in Rafah, a member of the Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Security Committee said on Saturday.

Amit Halevi's criticism came after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) announced on Thursday that they had "defeated Hamas' Rafah Brigades," and that they had now “complete operational control over the entire urban area.”

Halevi, quoted by the Israeli Channel 7 website, stated that the army claims to have killed over 2,000 fighters in Rafah, however, the actual number is significantly lower, noting that the inflated figure "doesn't even represent 25%" of the Resistance's fighting force.

He further highlighted that "Israel" had only destroyed a small fraction of the underground tunnels in Rafah, adding however that "even those (tunnels) were not all destroyed, but rather sealed, making it easy for Hamas to reactivate them."

The senior Israeli official noted that the Resistance in Rafah holds a massive stockpile of weapons, and the amount uncovered by the IOF is minimal in comparison. He emphasized that "Israel remains far from defeating or destroying Hamas."

Elsewhere in his criticism, Halevi described the messages coming from the Israeli army spokesperson as misleading for the public and the government.

"Every soldier who entered Khan Younis for the fourth time or the al-Zaytoun neighborhood for the fifth time knows that nothing has been defeated," he said in reference to the repeated Israeli incursions into these areas, despite previous declarations that they were "under control" and claims that the Resistance groups there had already been "defeated".

"With the current operational methods, the matter will never be settled, because for every [Resistance fighter] killed, two more are born; for every injured [fighter], three new fighters are recruited; and for every piece of weaponry seized by the Israeli army, five more are produced underground in Gaza."

Halevi further remarked that the method the occupation army uses in the "war of shafts," as described by the head of Shin Bet, cannot lead to defeating Hamas in quantitative terms, referring to the number of fighters and the weapons they possess in Gaza.

Therefore, "Israel" has no strategic achievements but is instead in an "endless tunnel," according to Halevi.