The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas Resistance movement, announced Tuesday that they successfully hacked an Israeli Skylark drone that was on a reconnaissance mission east of al-Zaytoon neighborhood in Gaza.

In the same direction, al-Qassam announced that they had blown up two tunnels with Israeli infantry units inside them after they approached the tunnels' openings. All the Israeli members were either killed or wounded.

The Resistance fighters also engaged an invading force of Israeli soldiers using small arms before they engaged with an RPG an Israeli Hummer that arrived as backup to support the struggling soldiers, which could be seen blowing up in a video shared by the Resistance.

The al-Qassam brigades also announced that its fighters in Khan Younis targeted an Israeli Merkava tank with a Yassin-105 armor-piercing rocket. 

مشاهد من اشتباكات مجاهدي القسام مع قوات الاحتلال المتوغلة جنوب حي الزيتون بمدينة #غزة.#الميادين #طوفان_الأقصى pic.twitter.com/wJDJnyQE7N

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) January 9, 2024

In turn, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), announced that it engaged the occupation crowds in Maan, east of Khan Younis, using heavy-caliber mortar shells. 

This comes amid Israeli reports that Israeli occupation forces claimed it has completed the withdrawal of thousands of its soldiers from Gaza City, as part of a major withdrawal of Israeli forces from the northern Gaza Strip, ordered at the political levels as part of an emergency.

The Palestinian resistance in Gaza is engaged in fierce confrontations with the invading occupation forces on multiple fronts in the Strip. As a result, the death toll of soldiers who died during the ground invasion has risen to 180 since the beginning of the incursion.

Deaths on an uptick

Haaretz quoted Alon Britan, a platoon commander, as saying: "There is a feeling that we are sitting ducks because the average soldier does not understand big-picture tactics." 

"The results will be dire if the authorities do not find solutions for the reserve soldiers and there will be less willingness to report for reserve service," a reserve soldier was quoted as saying.

This morning, the occupation announced that four of its troops were killed and six were seriously injured as a result of the ongoing ground battles with the Palestinian Resistance in the south and center of the Gaza Strip. 

Since the start of the war on October 7, 519 Israeli troops have been killed, 180 of whom were killed since the start of ground battles in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media. Though it is not clear whether or not this number takes the new deaths into account.

In addition, 1,042 soldiers have been injured since the start of the mentioned battles, 288 of whom are seriously injured and 45 receiving treatment since the beginning of the war. 

Despite the constant blackout and censorship imposed by the Israeli occupation forces, the accurate statements issued by the Resistance, and the video clips that document its targeting, directing of specific strikes, and ambushes of the invading forces have shown that losses incurred by the IOF are extremely high. 

A report by the Israeli Ynet news website revealed on Friday that at least 12,500 Israeli occupation troops will be categorized as disabled. 

These numbers were described by Ynet as markers of a "national event of a historical magnitude," in the entire history of the occupation.