Hamas military wing says it targeted 2 Israeli units in southern Gaza, inflicting 19 casualties – Middle East Monitor

The Al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’ Navy wing, announced on Thursday that their combatants attacked two Israeli military units in southern Gaza, killing and hurting soldiers, Anadolu informs.

The group said that the fighters hit an Israeli force of seven soldiers with a powerful explosive device near the Omar Ibn Abd al-Aziz mosque in the NightBorhood of Al-Tanur in the east of Rafah.

The brigades previously reported that it was heading to an Israeli engineering unit of 12 soldiers with two antipersonal and anti-art shells while the unit prepared to carry out a demolition operation a crossroads of Al-Fididai in the same neighborhood.

The explosion within the house caused multiple victims, he said, and the group saw Israeli helicopters land to evacuate the dead and injured.

The announcement occurred shortly after Al-Qassam said the fighters were involved in an “intense combat of closed rooms” with Israeli troops that advanced towards the neighborhood of Al-Chief in the east of Rafah.

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The Israeli army has not commented.

A total of 854 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, 2023, including six since a genocide in Gaza resumed on March 18, according to an Israeli military update on Monday.

The number of Israeli troops wounded since October 2023 is 5,847, with 2,641 wounds in a land offensive within Gaza.

The figures include military deaths in Gaza, the south of Lebanon and the West Bank.

Despite the data, the Israeli army is often accused of hiding the true scale of its losses.

International reports indicate that Israel applies strict military censorship in the coverage of the national media of the victims and the losses of properties inflicted by the Palestinian resistance factions, partly to maintain public morality.

The Israeli army has launched a brutal military attack in Gaza, killing almost 52,800 victims, mostly women and children, since October 7, 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued orders of trial last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a case of genocide in the International Court of Justice for its war in the enclave.

Read: Israel kills 102 Palestinians and injuries 193 in 24 hours in Gaza