Israeli helicopters evacuate troops from Gaza after deadly operations

The Palestinian Resistance attacked Israeli occupation forces invading and occupying axes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades detonated two anti-personnel improvised explosive devices (IEDs) into two Israeli military utility vehicles in Tal al-Hawa, a southern neighborhood in Gaza City. Tal al-Hawa has come under multiple Israeli raids in the past months, as occupation forces struggle to assert operational control over the area to the north of the strategic Netzarim Axis.

After detonating the two IEDs, al-Qassam fighters engaged the occupation soldiers present at the point of the ambush with automatic weapons. The Brigades reported that Israeli military rescue helicopters landed nearby to evacuate the Israeli casualties.

The Israeli military command announced that a reservist officer and the commander of the administrative support company of the 16th Infantry Brigade’s 8119th Batallion were killed, with the officer being killed in the IEDs planted by al-Qassam fighters on Saturday.

Later on Saturday, the Israeli military command announced that another soldier from the same battalion was killed in the Tal al-Hawa ambush. The soldier was part of a convoy to supply troops to Israeli occupation forces raiding the al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City with equipment.

Israeli occupation forces said that Resistance fighters who opened fire on the convoy were able to safely withdraw after conducting the attack.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) al-Quds Brigades launched a rocket attack on the Re’im military site in the Gaza Envelope on Saturday.

Its fighters also engaged Israeli occupation forces invading the northern neighborhoods of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, and also detonated a previously planted high-explosive IED in eastern Gaza City into an Israeli military vehicle in al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Several other Palestinian Resistance factions launched mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s (PFLP) Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades fired large-caliber mortar shells at a position of Israeli occupation forces in Tal Zo’rob to the west of the city of Rafah. The shells directly impacted the positions at around 12:30 pm and saw the Israeli rescue helicopters rush to the area to evacuate another set of casualties.

Al-Mujahideen Brigades shelled occupation forces in the Netzarim Axis with its locally-produced Haseb rockets. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades shelled command and control rooms on the same axis with 107 mm rockets and mortar shells. Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades also shelled occupation forces with similar 107 mm rockets on Saturday.

Al-Qassam Brigades shell occupation forces

On Friday, al-Qassam Brigades utilized its locally produced Rajoum rocket artillery shells to target a number of Israeli positions within the Gaza Strip and outside it. 

It fired the rockets at occupation forces in the Netzarim Axis, which splits the northern Gaza Strip from the rest of the besieged territory. It also targeted the Miftahim grouping with the 114 mm rockets and the Nirim military site to the northeast of Khan Younis. 

Sirens sounded in the Nirim settlement at 3:29 pm (local time) on Friday and several rockets hit the area. 

In eastern Rafah, the al-Mujahideen Brigades detonated an improvised barrel bomb into an Israeli M-113 armored personnel carrier (APC). 

The Brigades revealed that two of its fighters were martyred in an Israeli drone strike as they planted the bomb on Thursday, however, another group of fighters was able to complete the mission. The two martyred fighters were field commander Bilal Hassan Hussein al-Aarjani and fighter Munir Talaat al-Najjar.