The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announced on Saturday that its fighters successfully targeted Israeli military vehicles east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, confirming that there were Israeli soldiers killed and wounded in the operation.
In a brief statement posted on its Telegram channel, Al-Qassam said:
“Our fighters targeted four Israeli engineering excavators with Al-Yassin 105 shells, setting them ablaze.”
The statement added that Al-Qassam fighters observed multiple Israeli soldiers dead and injured at the scene, while Israeli helicopters conducted emergency evacuation operations in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis.
In a follow-up statement, Al-Qassam detailed a separate operation on Friday in which its fighters struck a Merkava tank and a D9 military bulldozer with two high-explosive roadside bombs in the same area.
Meanwhile, in northern Khan Younis, Saraya al-Quds — the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — announced in separate statements that its fighters detonated a powerful explosive device against an Israeli vehicle and targeted another Israeli excavator with automatic gunfire along Street 5.
These operations are part of the ongoing armed response by Palestinian resistance factions to Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, a campaign backed by the United States — that has continued since October 7, 2023. This offensive has involved widespread killing, starvation, destruction, and mass displacement, defying international appeals and International Court of Justice rulings demanding an end to the assault.
As of Thursday, official Israeli army figures put the death toll among Israeli officers and soldiers at approximately 879 killed and 6,012 wounded since the start of the Gaza genocide.
Observers note that Israel continues to suppress information about its military and material losses, banning photography and video sharing from conflict zones and warning against leaking information to media outlets except through tightly controlled official channels.
The relentless war on Gaza has so far left around 189,000 Palestinians dead or injured, the majority of them children and women, with over 11,000 still missing under the rubble. Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced, and widespread famine has claimed countless more lives, including many children.
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