By Abdelsalam Fayez
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, announced Thursday that more than 50 Israeli soldiers were killed in operations in the Gaza Strip last week.
Spokesman Abu Ubaida said in a release that their fighters also managed “to destroy 68 military vehicles, either fully or partially,” during the period.
He said Al-Qassam fighters “confirmed that they eliminated 53 Zionist soldiers at point-blank range, sniped 9 soldiers, and caused dozens of soldiers to fall between dead and wounded in 57 different military missions,” without specifying the locations.
The statement highlighted the targeting of “Israeli forces advancing with shells, anti-fortification and personnel mines and heavy weapons, as well as the demolition of four houses and the detonation of tunnel entrances and a minefield.”
Abu Ubaida said Al-Qassam fighters also downed “two Skylark reconnaissance drones and seized 8 drones, including two suicide drones.”
He pointed out that the fighters “shelled (Israeli) military concentrations with mortar and short-range rocket shells in all combat axes, launching missile barrages of various ranges into the Israeli entity.”
Earlier in the day, sirens sounded in several Israeli settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip for the first time in four days, warning of rocket launches, according to Israeli army radio and the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
The announcement by the Al-Qassam Brigades comes after the Israeli army announced Thursday that 38 soldiers were wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of injuries since Oct. 7 to 2,748 officers and soldiers, according to the army's website.
Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, killing at least 25,900 Palestinians and injuring 64,110 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala