Palestinian fighters target Israeli soldiers, vehicles in Gaza
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Al-Qassam and al-Quds Brigades target Israeli forces in Khan Younis and Gaza City with coordinated raids, mortar shells, and anti-tank weapons.
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Israeli soldiers stand on the top of armoured vehicles parked on an area near the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern occupied Palestine, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025 (AP)
The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announced that its forces successfully shelled a gathering of Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the vicinity of the Al-Rantisi Mosque in the Ma'n area, south of Khan Younis, with several mortar shells on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, released footage of a coordinated ambush, carried out jointly with the al-Qassam Brigades, which targeted enemy armored vehicles with explosives and anti-tank shells east of the Shujaiya neighborhood in Gaza City.
In a related development, the al-Qassam Brigades announced on August 20 that its fighters had carried out an extensive raid operation targeting a recently established Israeli military position southeast of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Brigades detailed in their statement that an al-Qassam infantry force, approximately the size of a platoon, stormed the position, targeting several Merkava 4 guard tanks with Shawaz explosive devices, improvised explosive devices, and Yassin 105 RPG shells.
'Israel' launches the second occupation of Gaza
This comes as "Israel" begins its occupation of Gaza, announcing the start of the second phase of its "Gideon's Chariots (B)" military operation in the Gaza Strip, and has begun preliminary maneuvers to encircle Gaza City.
According to a military spokesperson, the 162nd Division has launched operations from Jabalia in the northwest as part of a broader strategy to tighten the siege on the city, a campaign that may take an extended period but could also be halted depending on political directives, with all maneuvers being carried out by conscript units backed by 133,000 reserve soldiers.
Israeli media outlets, such as the Kan 11 public broadcaster, reported that the military's plan is structured to unfold in two principal phases spanning four months.
In its first phase, the operation aims to establish so-called "humanitarian zones" with limited infrastructure in the southern part of the Strip to create the conditions for a mass evacuation of civilians from Gaza City, which would then be followed by a ground maneuver to complete the city's encirclement while the evacuations continue.
The second phase of the operation is set to involve the gradual entry of forces into Gaza City itself through a slow, methodical advance supported by sustained air strikes and artillery shelling until the city is fully captured.
