Violent clashes in Rafah between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli army

AA / Gaza / Mustafa Haboush

Violent clashes broke out on Friday between Palestinian resistance factions and Israeli forces who entered the east of the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah and the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment continues on various areas of the Gaza Strip, leaving many Palestinians dead and injured.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu correspondent that since dawn on Friday, there have been continuous exchanges of gunfire and violent explosions, in areas east of Rafah city, between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces.

Witnesses reported plumes of thick black smoke rising east of Rafah, the scene of an Israeli ground military operation since Tuesday morning.

The clashes are concentrated around the settlement “Saad Sayel”, in the area of ​​Tabet Zare, east of Rafah, according to witnesses.

In this context, the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, stated in a statement that they carried out a “complex and simultaneous military operation near the Al-Dawa Mosque, east of Rafah.”

The brigades added that their fighters “targeted a building in which a number of Israeli soldiers were barricaded (TBG) with a grenade, and at the same time they targeted an armored personnel carrier that was under the building with a grenade (Al-Yassin 105). They also targeted a group of dismounted soldiers who were next to the aircraft carrier with an anti-personnel grenade, killing and wounding the entire force.

Al-Qasam also announced, in separate statements, the targeting of an Israeli tank “Merkava” with an “Al-Yassin 105” grenade in the area of ​​Abu Halawa, east of the city of Rafah, and the destruction of an Israeli transporter, setting it on fire and targeting two tanks with an “Al-Yassin” grenade 105” near Saad Sayel settlement, east of the city.

The Al-Qassam Brigades said they “captured Israeli forces in a precision ambush after detonating a pre-prepared minefield east of Rafah,” according to another statement.

The brigades bombarded the Israeli military site “Isnad Sufa” in the Gaza Strip with the short-range 114 mm “Rajum” rocket system, as they announced in a statement.

On the other hand, Israeli aircraft and artillery vehicles continue to bomb various areas of Rafah city, causing many deaths and injuries among Palestinians, including children and women, according to medical sources.

Eyewitnesses reported to Anadolu that Israeli artillery shelled the area around a taxi stand east of central Rafah with numerous shells, while Israeli forces that had penetrated east of the city blew up numerous houses.

Witnesses also reported that Israeli planes bombed a house in the neighborhood of “Khirbet Al-Adas”, north of Rafah.

Medical sources from the Kuwaiti hospital stated that in the last 24 hours, 9 dead and 17 injured were hospitalized as a result of the ongoing Israeli raids on Rafah.

In the nearby town of Khan Yunis, Israeli planes bombed the house of the “Qudeih” family, killing 8 family members, including women and children, according to medical sources at the European Hospital in that town.

In Gaza City, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian resistance factions and Israeli invasion forces in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the city, since Thursday morning, according to eyewitnesses and local sources.

The Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that its fighters were “engaged in violent clashes with enemy forces penetrating south of the Al-Zaytoun settlement.”

The same source stated that Palestinian resistance fighters “destroyed an Israeli Merkava 4 tank with an Al-Yassin 105 grenade south of the Al-Zaytoun settlement.”

The Israeli army announced on Thursday the start of a military operation in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the second of its kind since the start of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The Israeli military said in a statement seen by Anadolu: “Soldiers of the IDF and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) launched an operation led by the 99th Division, in the Al-Zaytoun area of ​​the central Gaza Strip, to continue dismantling the enemy’s infrastructure and eliminate militants in the region.

The second military operation in the Al-Zaytoun settlement comes as Israeli forces continued attacks and ground military operations in areas east of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip since Monday, resulting in the displacement of more than 100,000 Palestinians southwest of the Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s war against Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead and wounded, mostly children and women, and about 10,000 missing, in a context of mass destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.

Israel continues the war despite issuing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt to the fighting and despite appearing before the International Court of Justice for crimes of “genocide”.

*Translated from Arabic by Wejden Jlassi

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