The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, have celebrated a complex ambush against the Israeli military in Rafah, a city in the far-southern Gaza Strip, declaring it a significant failure for the Israeli forces.
“Our complex and qualitative operation today in Rafah is a new confirmation of the enemy’s failure in the face of our resistance, and a painful blow to its army… and we have more,” Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, stated on Saturday.
Obeida emphasized that Gaza-based resistance fighters would continue their “painful strikes” as needed, asserting that Israeli occupation forces would encounter deadly ambushes in any part of the Palestinian territories.
Earlier, Hamas fighters killed eight Israeli soldiers after firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at their military vehicles in Rafah and then ambushing a support force deployed to the scene.
This attack marked one of the deadliest days for Israeli soldiers in Gaza in months as the ground invasion of the southern region intensifies.
Qassam Brigades reported that its fighters “carried out a complex ambush against enemy vehicles” in the Tal as-Sultan district of Rafah city.
The group claimed it fired Yassin-105 RPGs at a D9 military bulldozer, resulting in the death and injury of an unspecified number of Israeli forces.
A “rescue force” vehicle that later arrived was also targeted, “resulting in its destruction and the death of all its occupants,” the group said.
Since the ground invasion of Gaza was launched on October 27, reports indicate at least 307 Israeli troops have been killed and thousands wounded.
Israel initiated the Gaza offensive on October 7 following Operation al-Aqsa Storm carried out by Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups in response to Israeli actions against Palestinians.
The Gaza-based health ministry has reported that at least 37,296 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 85,197 others injured since the conflict began. Israel has also imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the territory’s over two million residents.
