the Qassam Brigades said its fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and vehicles in the Satar al-Gharbi area, north of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, with medium-caliber mortar shells.
It added that, in cooperation with the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, it also targeted Israeli crowds around the Halima Mosque in the south of the city with heavy mortar shells.
The Israeli occupation army also announced in a statement that its forces intercepted a rocket fired from central Gaza toward settlements adjacent to the Strip in southern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported.
The statement added that air raid sirens sounded in open areas within the settlements in southern Israel after the rocket was fired.
Negligence and dereliction
Meanwhile, the official Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that soldiers in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion spoke of "systematic neglect and deficiencies in combat equipment," after seven of them were killed in Gaza last week.
The soldiers noted that "individual weapons, medium machine guns (MAGs), and even Puma armored personnel carriers suffer from constant malfunctions and do not provide adequate protection."
The mother of one of the battalion's soldiers described what was happening as a game of "Russian Roulette" (a bet on one's life), adding that her son "feels like a duck in the line of fire," according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.
The Israeli occupation army announced the deaths of seven soldiers during an operation in the Khan Yunis area, after an armored personnel carrier was hit by an explosive device.
On Wednesday, the Qassam Brigades broadcast footage documenting the ambush it said targeted two Israeli armored personnel carriers near the Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in the Ma'an area, south of Khan Yunis, as part of the "Stones of David" series of operations.
The video documented the moment an explosive device was thrown into the first tanker from its upper hatch, before the perpetrator left the scene. Seconds later, a loud explosion was heard targeting the front tanker, immediately followed by a second explosion targeting the rear tanker.
Al-Qassam Brigades said the two explosions were caused by the detonation of two explosive devices, "Shawaz" and "Fedayeen", which set the two tankers on fire.
Since the start of the war of extermination in Gaza on October 7, 2023, the number of Israeli officers and soldiers killed has reached 879, in addition to 6,012 wounded, according to data on the army's website.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a war of genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The US-backed genocide left approximately 189,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and a famine claimed the lives of many, including children.
