Hamas’ military wing claims it killed 5 Israeli soldiers in Gaza

​​​​​​​By Fayez Abdulsalam

ISTANBUL (AA) - Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, announced Wednesday that five Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip were either killed or injured while fighting with the group.

“Al-Qassam fighters managed to snipe 3 Zionist soldiers in northern Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, and killed 2 Zionist soldiers at point-blank range in the Brazil neighborhood southeast of Rafah city,” it said in a statement.

The Israeli army later admitted to the death of an officer and two soldiers, and injuries to three others with serious wounds in battles in northern Gaza.

The death toll for Israeli soldiers and officers since the start of the onslaught on Oct. 7 has risen to 634, including 285 in the ground battles that began Oct. 27, according to the army’s figure.

Earlier Wednesday, al-Qassam Brigades announced that it killed and injured at least 10 Israeli soldiers with it targeted “infiltrating forces” north of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Al-Qassam fighters also targeted “two military bulldozers of type D9 with a Yassin-105 shell and a Shuwaz explosive device in the Brazil neighborhood on the Palestinian-Egyptian border southeast of Rafah city.”

In the same neighborhood, the group said it destroyed a Merkava tank with a Yassin-105 shell and targeted an armored personnel carrier with a Tandem shell in the vicinity of the Salah al-Din Gate in southeastern Rafah.

More than 35,700 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority being women and children, and nearly 80,000 others injured in relentless Israeli attacks since October, following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.

More than seven months into the Israeli onslaught, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala