Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades announce new attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza

By Mohammad Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The armed wing of the Hamas resistance group on Friday announced more attacks against Israeli soldiers across the Gaza Strip, claiming to kill and injure a number of them.

In a statement, Al-Qassam Brigades said it detonated a booby-trapped house with an Israeli force inside in the Zeitoun neighborhood, eastern Gaza City, resulting in casualties among the force.

The statement noted that Al-Qassam fighters detected an Israeli helicopter that landed near the area to evacuate the casualties.

In another statement, Al-Qassam said its fighters blew up a tunnel shaft in eastern Zeitoun area, leaving casualties among Israeli soldiers.

In the southern city of Rafah, the group said it fired mortar shells on Israeli forces in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, western Rafah, and also targeted an Israeli tank in the same area with a rocket propelled grenade.

The Israeli army is yet to comment on the Al-Qassam statements.

Earlier, the Israeli army reported the continuation of its incursion in the southern and central Gaza Strip, claiming that "over the past 24 hours, the army forces have eliminated a number of militants and discovered many weapons and underground tunnel openings."

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar