Hamas’ military wing reports inflicting 25 casualties on Israeli forces in a series of coordinated attacks east of Rafah.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, announced on Wednesday that 25 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in a series of targeted operations east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The group also released footage documenting attacks on Israeli military vehicles in the Jabalia refugee camp, located in the north.
According to the statement, Qassam fighters on Tuesday targeted a seven-member Israeli unit with an anti-personnel ‘TV’ explosive device in the Al-Mashrou’ Junction area, east of Rafah. The attack reportedly resulted in multiple casualties, and Israeli helicopters were seen evacuating the wounded.
The Brigades said that a day earlier, on Monday, its fighters detonated a pre-rigged residential structure as an Israeli force of 10 soldiers entered the building, causing it to collapse. Several casualties were reported, and Israeli helicopters again carried out evacuations.
In another attack on July 17, the group said it had used two anti-personnel explosive devices against an Israeli engineering unit of eight soldiers near the Deir Yassin junction in the Al-Janina neighborhood, also east of Rafah. Qassam fighters said the blast killed and wounded several soldiers.
The group also described an earlier incident this month in which they reportedly lured Israeli troops into a booby-trapped house in the Al-Shawka project, east of Rafah, and detonated it upon their entry.
On Wednesday, Al-Qassam Brigades released video footage showing its fighters targeting Israeli military vehicles at close range in the Jabalia camp. The video, aired by Al Jazeera, documented several operations, including the destruction of a Merkava tank with a “Yasin 105” missile and the detonation of a Shawath explosive device inside a tank.
The footage also showed the surveillance and planting of explosive devices along the routes of Israeli vehicles, the targeting of a D9 bulldozer, and an armored personnel carrier being hit with a Yasin 105 missile. One sequence captured the use of a 107 rocket to strike a house where Israeli soldiers had taken cover.
The Qassam Brigades said it also detonated a “highly explosive barrel bomb” against an Israeli armored personnel carrier on July 12, north of Khan Yunis, killing and wounding its crew. The group said the evacuation of casualties took several hours.
In a separate operation on Tuesday, the Brigades claimed to have hit a Merkava tank on Al-Sikka Street, east of the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, with a Yasin 105 shell.
Palestinian resistance factions have consistently released documentation of their military operations against Israeli forces since the ground invasion began on October 27, 2023.