By Ranjan Solomon
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF), during intense fighting in southern Gaza, acknowledged the injury of the commander of Battalion 52, noting that he holds the rank of colonel. With the officer’s death, the number of casualties in the Israeli army’s battles in Gaza rises to more than 680 officers and soldiers since October 7, 2023, in addition to around 4,100 others injured to varying degrees.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance continues to defend the enclave against the invading forces, engaging in fierce clashes and carrying out a series of operations on multiple combat fronts, inflicting significant losses on the Israeli military. The Palestinian resistance said it is confronting the IOF and executing a series of operations across Gaza, increasing the number of casualties among the Israeli army since October 7, 2023. The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, targeted tanks and Israeli armored personnel carrier with shells.
The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the al-Quds Brigades, is engaging in fierce battles with Israeli soldiers using appropriate anti-armor and anti-tank weapons in areas west of Rafah. The al-Quds Brigades also targeted Israeli soldiers stationed at the Rafah crossing gate with Egypt and its surroundings, as well as Israeli troops and vehicles advancing with mortar shells. In a joint operation with the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of PIJ, targeted Israeli military formations with a rocket barrage. Aqsa Brigades declared it was engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces and their military vehicles using appropriate weapons on the western outskirts of Rafah.
Reuters reported that the IOF is again attacking Gaza City since October 7, in yet another sign of the Israeli military’s ongoing failures in northern Gaza. This comes as the spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said the Israeli occupation will “emerge defeated and we will reveal later how we deceived it for years”. Abu Ubaida, emphasized that the people of Gaza continue to be subjected to genocide as “punishment for adherence to their land and their right to resist, without food or medicine”. The operation al-Aqsa Storm was not the beginning of history for the resistance or the occupation’s aggression, but rather represented a moment of explosion against its decades-old war crimes.
On the battleground, Abu Ubaida stressed that the 24 brigades affiliated with Hamas’s military wing fought from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the far south, presenting martyrs from soldiers and leaders from all levels, but the resistance will never surrender saying “the flag will not fall”. The ongoing battle in Rafah for two months and what is happening in northern Gaza and its center are the best evidence of the resistance’s strength and the failure of the occupation, which “continues to receive painful blows wherever it advances within the Strip.”
Gaza resistance has strengthened its defensive capabilities to confront the occupation everywhere in the besieged enclave. They promise that the conflict in the South of Gaza City will be “terrifying for the occupation, and its forces will emerge defeated from it”. When Netanyahu speaks of is a personal victory “at the expense of sacrificing your sons”. That the fate of the captives has become a toy in Netanyahu’s hands.
Hamas has offered a “salute of duty” to Hezbollah in Lebanon and to the resistance in Yemen and Iraq, affirming that these fronts united to support occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) and “the collective conscience of our nation is aligned with this resistance”. The Palestinian people and their resistance are certain that the battle to defend Gaza will only lead to significant transformations, affirming that the inevitable outcome of resistance will be victory and the defeat of the occupation.
In solidarity
Ranjan Solomon
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates
8 July 2024