UPDATE - Al-Qassam Brigades say they ambushed Israeli forces in southern Gaza

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS MORE DETAILS

By Anadolu staff

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Friday that they ambushed Israeli forces in the Saad Sayel barracks site, eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the Al-Qassam Brigades said its fighters “ambushed a Zionist force after detonating a pre-prepared minefield inside the Saad Sayel barracks site east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.”

It also said its fighters “executed a military operation near Al-Dawa Mosque, located east of Rafah.”

The operation involved targeting “a building housing several Israeli soldiers with a TBG shell, striking a troop carrier beneath the building with a Yassin 105 shell, and deploying an anti-personnel shell along with a full strike against a group of Israeli soldiers positioned near a tanker.”

The attack resulted in a number of casualties, it added.

Al-Qassam Brigades also targeted “an Israeli Merkava tank with a Yassin 105 shell in the Abu Halawa area, east of the city of Rafah.”

In a separate statement, the brigades said “fierce clashes are taking place between Palestinian resistance factions and Israeli forces penetrating eastern Rafah in southern Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli military on Friday claimed to have intercepted two missiles fired from the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement, it said Israeli air defense fighters intercepted two launches that crossed from the Rafah area to the area surrounding Gaza.

The Al-Qassam Brigades confirmed the attack, noting that it shelled “the military site of Kerem Shalom east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with heavy-caliber mortar shells.”

Medical sources told Anadolu that Israeli aircraft and artillery vehicles continue to bomb various areas of the city of Rafah, resulting in casualties among Palestinians.

Eyewitnesses also told Anadolu that Israeli artillery targeted the vicinity of the eastern taxi stand in central Rafah with a number of shells, while the Israeli forces penetrating east of the city blew up several homes.

Witnesses also reported that Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the Khirbat Al-Adas area in northern Rafah.

Medical sources at the Kuwaiti Hospital said that during the past 24 hours, at least nine people were killed and 17 others were injured as a result of the ongoing Israeli raids on Rafah.

In the neighboring city of Khan Yunis, Israeli aircraft bombed a family home, killing eight Palestinians, including women and children, according to medical sources at the European Hospital in the city.

In Gaza City, fierce clashes broke out since Thursday morning between Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli forces in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the city, according to eyewitnesses.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack in October, which killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 34,900 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children. Over 78,500 others have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities. Thousands remain missing.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in the coastal enclave, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi