Fighters with the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas have announced killing and wounding as many as 15 Israeli troops during a complex operation in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, as the armed wing is named, made the announcement in a statement on Friday.
“In a complex operation, al-Qassam fighters managed to target a Zionist personnel carrier with an al-Yassin 105 shell, and target a house where 12 soldiers were holed up with a TBG (thermobaric grenade) shell, killing and wounding them,” the statement read.
“While three soldiers were escaping towards a Merkava tank, it was targeted with a highly explosive device in the al-Qasasib area in [the city of] Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip,” it added.
Palestinians have increased their resistance operations in the face of intensified Israeli aggression in the northern Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people over the past weeks.
The fatalities are among the 43,000-plus Palestinians, who have been killed as a result of the Israeli regime’s October 2023-present genocidal war on the territory. Women and children comprise the majority of the victims.
Al-Qassam’s statement came after the Israeli military announced the loss of at least 62 forces in confrontations with resistance fighters in Gaza and Lebanon in a month.
The death toll marked the highest to be incurred among Israeli troops since last December, when 110 forces were killed at the height of the war.
Also on Friday, Hamas armed wing’s Tulkarem Brigade, which operates in the city of Tulkarem in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank, reported “detonating a highly explosive device” in the city’s al-Balawneh neighborhood during an Israeli raid on the city’s refugee camp.
The brigade also released a video, showing its setting off of the device during the advancement of an Israeli bulldozer in the area.