Powerful explosion kills Israeli troops in al-Shujaiya, Gaza building

Palestinian Resistance fighters are confronting a renewed invasion into Gaza City’s al-Shujaiya neighborhood on Friday, after an attack into the area was launched on June 27. 

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) al-Quds Brigades have proven their continued presence in the neighborhood by conducting a series of effective operations against invading forces for the second straight day. 

Resistance destroys Israeli vehicles, deals casualties among troops in al-Shujaiya

In particular, the group had set up several improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and minefields, embedded within routes that occupation forces were expected to take when raiding the area. 

In an initial operation, announced on Friday morning, the group said that its fighters blew up an Israeli armored vehicle, via an IED planted into the ground at a previous time. Resistance fighters proceeded to engage Israeli infantry forces, who were being escorted by the vehicle, from close range. 

The group confirmed that several Israeli troops were either killed or wounded as a result of the operation, which took place in Talat al-Mentar in easter al-Shujaiyah. 

The group also fired several mortar rounds at Israeli occupation forces positioned on the axis of advancement into the neighborhood. 

In the vicinity of the Tunisian cemetery in the neighborhood, al-Quds Brigades fighters destroyed an Israeli armored vehicle, with another IED that was planted on Baghdad Street. 

Al-Quds Brigades detonates F-16 bomb killing Israeli force

However, the most impactful of these operations was an ambush set up in a building in al-Shujaiya, which saw Israeli rescue helicopters search for and transport multiple casualties.

In the operation claimed by al-Quds Brigades, sapper units had booby-trapped a tunnel situated within a building in al-Shujaiya. 

An Israeli infantry force was then lured into the building by fighters, who set off the explosives. Among the explosives was an unexploded bomb launched by an Israeli fighter jet at an earlier time. 

The Resistance’s combat engineers had worked on reusing the large bomb for the purpose of the operation, collapsing the building and killing those inside it. 

Several other operations were also conducted in the neighborhood, leading to several casualties which were transported by multiple Israeli rescue helicopters to nearby hospitals. 

Al-Qassam, PFLP conduct their own operations

Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) Abu Ali Moustapha Brigades also defended al-Shujaiya against the Israeli invasion. 

The PFLP’s armed wing said that its special forces engaged occupation forces, utilizing various weapons, in the neighborhood. 

On the other hand, al-Qassam fighters fired a locally produced al-Yassin tandem rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at an Israeli Merkava tank in al-Shujaiyah. 

Another group of fighters fired mortar shells at armored and infantry forces positioned on Baghdad Street. 

Al-Qassam Brigades fighters also engaged occupation forces from close range, which killed and injured Israeli soldiers. Fighters also monitored Israeli helicopters land to transport casualties from the battlefield. 

In southwestern Gaza City, al-Qassam fighters fired a thermobaric shell at Israeli occupation forces positioned in a building in Tal al-Hawa, where helicopters were also seen transporting the casualties at a later time.   

Occupation forces in Netsarim, Rafah shelled

In the Netsarim Axis, which splits the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City from the rest of the besieged territory, al-Qassam fighters fired a salvo of Rajoum-type rockets toward occupation forces positioned there. 

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also bombarded occupation forces using short-range 107 mm rocket artillery shells, this time from the southernmost city of Rafah. Mortar shells were also fired toward occupation forces positioned in the same area in eastern Rafah.

Al-Qassam fighters also fired an al-Yassin shell at an Israeli Merkava tank in Tal al-Sultan in western Rafah. 

The group also published footage of a sniper operation that killed an Israeli soldier in the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Infantry Battalion in Rafah, who was killed on Thursday.

Palestinian Resistance renews capabilities in Gaza, falsifying Israeli claims

After claiming to have dismantled the Palestinian Resistance’s military apparatus in the northern Gaza Strip in early January 2024, the Israeli occupation’s military command, ordering a new invasion into al-Shujaiya proves the falsity of these claims.

The renewed attack into areas such as al-Shujaiya and Jabalia have proven even more difficult to execute for Israeli occupation forces, as the first time around armored and infantry forces were better equipped and garnered greater firepower from supporting units and the Air Force. 

An incursion into Jabalia and its refugee camp on May 12 dragged on into early June, as the city saw some of the fiercest fighting since the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip was launched in late October 2023, with a similar scenario expected to ensue in al-Shujaiya.

The first two days of the confrontation in al-Shujaiaya have shown that the Resistance has planned a strong defensive structure, and boobytrapping routes into the neighborhood that have inflicted substantial damage on Israeli armored forces.