IOF incur heavy casualties during fierce battles with Gaza Resistance

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
19 May 2024 00:45

The al-Qassam Resistance Brigades announces the killing of 20 Israeli occupation soldiers in operations in Jabalia and Rafah.

Al-Qassam Brigades destroys an Israeli occupation tank near the al-Shifa Medical Complex in Khan Younis on March 21, 2024 (Al-Qassam Military Media)

Palestinian Resistance factions continue to confront the Israeli invasion across multiple battlefronts as the genocidal war on the Strip reaches its 225th-day mark.

Intense confrontations are particularly taking place in Jabalia and eastern Rafah as "Israel" struggles to achieve any of its main war objectives.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announced a series of operations in Jabalia refugee camp and Rafah targeting Israeli occupation forces, including the launch of a Sam 7 anti-air missile toward an Apache helicopter over northern Jabalia refugee camp.

كتائب القسام تنشر مشاهد من إطلاق صاروخ "سام 7" تجاه طائرة مروحية تابعة للاحتلال من طراز "أباتشي" شمال مخيم جباليا شمال قطاع #غزة #طوفان_الأقصى #فلسطين_المحتلة pic.twitter.com/K5WjjrKBv0
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) May 18, 2024

In a statement on Saturday, the Resistance Brigades declared that they successfully eliminated 15 Israeli soldiers. Their operation involved storming a house where a significant number of soldiers were fortified, confronting them with machine guns and grenades. The operations peaked with the detonation of an anti-personnel device in the al-Tanour neighborhood, east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam also announced that its fighters successfully lured an Israeli infantry unit and detonated an anti-personnel device, resulting in the killing of 5 soldiers and the injury of several others near the al-Taba'in Mosque east of Rafah.

Resistance fighters of the group targeted an armored personnel carrier and a Merkava tank with al-Yassin 105 shells in the vicinity of the cemetery east of the city, a statement read, adding that a D9 military bulldozer was targeted with a Shawaz highly-explosive device, east of the Haroun Mosque.

In Jabalia, al-Qassam said its fighters had destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank with al-Yassin 105 shell and targeted two other tanks of the same model also using an al-Yassin 105 shell. Resistance fighters also targeted an armored personnel carrier with an anti-tank IED.

Al-Qassam fighters also struck an Israeli special force fortified in a building in the same area with a TGB shell, before luring it into a booby-trapped tunnel.

Additionally, the Resistance group said it bombarded a command and control center established east of Jabalia with heavy-caliber mortar shells.

Complex highly-explosive minefield

On its part, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigades said its fighters engaged in fierce confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in Rafah and the Jabalia refugee camp.

An Israeli force in the al-Tanour neighborhood, invading from the direction of eastern Rafah, was targeted by Resistance fighters with a barrage of heavy-caliber mortar shells.

Meanwhile, the Resistance group announced conducting a sophisticated operation, where it detonated a heavily rigged minefield targeting Israeli soldiers and military vehicles in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City - an area Israelis claimed to have concluded their operations in earlier this week.

According to footage published by the Brigades, the group's fighters rigged an unexploded Israeli bomb earlier dropped on Gaza, in addition to a number of Thaqib-barrel high-powered explosive devices.

The video revealed Resistance fighters planting the explosives in designated locations, according to the ambush plan. After Israeli forces advanced toward the minefield, Resistance fighters detonated the devices and later revealed scenes of the remains of military vehicles and tanks.

#بالفيديو | سرايا #القدس تعرض مشاهد من تفجير حقل ألغام في آليات وجنود الاحتلال في محور التقدم بحي الزيتون شرق مدينة #غزة. #طوفان_الأقصى pic.twitter.com/OE0UvyVCnh
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) May 18, 2024

After over seven months of the war, Resistance groups continued to launch rockets targeting Israeli settlements in the Gaza envelope.

Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for targeting Askalan (Ashkelon) and Beer al-Sabe' (Beer Sheva) with a rocket barrage.

In a rare announcement, the al-Quds Brigades unveiled its unit specializing in cyber operations, Military Unit 65, noting that it had operated "covertly and secretly throughout Operation Al-Aqsa Flood." The Resistance group also released footage documenting one of its operations.

كتائب شهداء الأقصى تكشف عن «الوحدة 65 العسكرية» وحدة السايبر التي عملت سراً خلال معركة #طوفان_الأقصى #فلسطين_المحتلة pic.twitter.com/qQ0bs390NC
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) May 18, 2024

Furthermore, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades also announced targeting a command and control center belonging to the Israeli army, east of the Jabalia camp, with heavy-caliber mortar shells.

In a joint operation, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the al-Qassam Brigades carried out a joint operation, shelling the command center in the Netzarim axis with mortar shells.

Another joint operation between the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Martyr Jihad Jibril Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), targeted an Israeli military site in eastern central Gaza.

Additionally, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said its fighters engaged in heavy confrontations with occupation forces infiltrating the Jabalia refugee camp.