AA / Gaza / Mustafa Haboush
Violent clashes broke out on Friday between Palestinian resistance factions and Israeli forces entering the east of the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the town of Gaza.
Israeli aerial and artillery bombardments continue on various areas of the Gaza Strip, leaving many Palestinians dead and injured.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu correspondent that exchanges of gunfire and violent explosions had been heard continuously since dawn on Friday, in areas east of the city of Rafah, between Palestinian resistance fighters. and Israeli forces.
Witnesses reported that columns of thick black smoke were rising from the east of Rafah, the scene of an Israeli ground military operation since Tuesday morning.
The clashes are concentrated around the “Saad Sayel” neighborhood, in the Tabet Zare area, east of Rafah, according to witnesses.
In this context, the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, indicated in a statement that they had 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 with a (TBG) shell, and at the same time they targeted an armored personnel carrier that was under the building with a shell (Al-Yassin 105). They also targeted a group of dismounted soldiers who were alongside the aircraft carrier with an antipersonnel shell, leaving the entire force killed and injured.
Al-Qassam also announced, in separate statements, the targeting of an Israeli “Merkava” tank with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the Abu Halawa area, east of the city of Rafah, and the destruction of an Israeli personnel carrier, setting it on fire, and targeting two tanks with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell near the Saad Sayel neighborhood, east of the city.
The Al-Qassam Brigades said they had “trapped an Israeli force in a precise 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 a 114mm “Rajum” short-range missile system, as they announced in a statement.
On the other hand, Israeli planes and artillery vehicles continue to bombard various areas of the city of Rafah, causing many deaths and injuries among Palestinians, including children and women, according to medical sources.
Eyewitnesses reported to Anadolu that Israeli artillery targeted the area around the taxi rank east of central Rafah with a number of shells, while Israeli forces penetrated east of the city blew up a number of houses.
Witnesses also reported that Israeli planes bombed a house in the “Khirbet Al-Adas” neighborhood, north of Rafah.
Medical sources from the Kuwaiti hospital indicated 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 a home of the “Qudeih” family, killing 8 family members, including women and children, according to medical sources at the town’s European Hospital.
In Gaza City, violent clashes have erupted since Thursday morning between Palestinian resistance factions and Israeli invasion forces in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the city, according to eyewitnesses. and local sources.
The Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that their fighters “are engaged in violent clashes with enemy forces penetrating south of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.”
The same Source indicated that Palestinian resistance fighters “destroyed an Israeli Merkava 4 tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell south of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.”
On Thursday, the Israeli army announced the start of a military operation in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the second of its kind since the start of the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The Israeli army said in a statement seen by Anadolu: “IDF soldiers and the General Security Service (Shin Bet) launched an operation led by the 99th Division, in the Al-Zaytoun area, in the central Gaza Strip, to continue the dismantling of hostile infrastructure and eliminate militants in the region.
The second military operation in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood comes as Israeli forces have continued their attacks and ground military operations since Monday in areas east of the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, resulting in the displacement of more than 100,000 Palestinians to the southwest of the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli war against Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has left tens of thousands of Palestinian dead and injured, mostly children and women, and around 10,000 missing, in a context of massive destruction and famine which cost the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues the war despite issuing a UN Security Council resolution to immediately stop 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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