Hamas military wing says it targeted 2 Israeli units in southern Gaza, inflicting 19 casualties

Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced Thursday that its fighters targeted two Israeli military units in southern Gaza, killing and wounding soldiers, Anadolu reports.

The group said fighters struck an Israeli force of seven soldiers with a powerful explosive device near the Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz Mosque in the al-Tannour neighborhood in eastern Rafah.

The Brigades reported earlier that it targeted an Israeli engineering unit of 12 soldiers with two anti-personnel and anti-armor shells as the unit prepared to carry out a demolition operation inside a home near al-Fidai Junction in the same neighborhood.

The explosion inside the house caused multiple casualties, it said, and the group saw Israeli helicopters landing to evacuate the dead and wounded.

The announcement came shortly after al-Qassam said fighters were engaged in “intense close-quarters combat” with Israeli troops advancing into the al-Jeneina neighborhood in eastern Rafah.

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The Israeli military has not commented.

A total of 854 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, including six since a genocide resumed in Gaza on March 18, according to an Israeli military update Monday.

The number of Israeli troops wounded since October 2023 stands at 5,847, with 2,641 injured in a ground offensive inside Gaza.

The figures include military deaths in Gaza, southern Lebanon and the West Bank.

Despite the data, the Israeli army is frequently accused of concealing the true scale of its losses.

International reports indicate that Israel enforces strict military censorship on domestic media coverage of casualties and property losses inflicted by Palestinian resistance factions, partly to maintain public morale.

The Israeli army has launched a brutal military onslaught on Gaza, killing nearly 52,800 victims, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

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