Al-Qassam Brigades resistance fighters. Photo: Financial Times.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, but the Qassam Brigades continue to inflict losses on the army after more than 100 days of fighting
Fighters from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, killed and injured 30 Israeli soldiers in a booby-trapped home in Gaza on 18 January.
The Qassam Brigades announced in a statement on Telegram that “our mujahideen confirmed the bombing of a house that had been booby-trapped with a number of explosive devices after luring a Zionist foot force of 30 soldiers into the house. As soon as they entered, it was completely blown up, leaving them dead and wounded in Bani Suhaila, east of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.”
Despite Israel’s vow to destroy Hamas, the military wing of the group is still inflicting losses on the Israeli army after over 100 days of fighting, including in northern Gaza, which Israel claims to control.
Israeli tanks were forced to return to parts of the northern Gaza they had left last week, Reuters reported on 16 January.
According to residents, this reignited “some of the most intense combat since the New Year when Israel announced it was scaling back its operations there.” Israel claimed its forces had killed dozens of Qassam fighters in clashes in Beit Lahiya in Gaza’s northernmost areas.
Al-Qassam Brigades Says Destroyed About 1,000 Israeli Military Vehicles in Past 100 Days
At the same time, Israeli bombing continues to kill Palestinian civilians. Reuters reported further that a boy was killed by a missile while playing on a bicycle by a school gate in Khan Younis.
“Zaher Abu Zarifa wept and cradled a black plastic body bag holding his seven-year-old son Saif, one of at least 11 bodies brought out at a hospital morgue.”
Qassam hits an IDF troop carrier with a remotely detonated Shawaz EFP and then a Yassin 105 in quick succession in Sheikh Radwan, Gaza City. [Qassam Brigades 16/1] pic.twitter.com/5YRzq8ozEW
— Jon Elmer (@jonelmer) January 16, 2024
A gravedigger unzipped the bag so the father could kiss the boy’s face one last time.
“Forgive me, my son. I could not protect you,” the father said at the boy’s grave.
Despite the continued fighting, the Israeli government is using financial incentives to encourage its residents to return to settlements surrounding Gaza that were attacked by Qassam fighters during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.
According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, a family comprising of parents and three children will be able to receive 21,000 Shekels ($5,600) every month to return to any settlement between 4 and 7 km from Gaza.
According to Israeli official figures, some 126,000 Israelis have been evacuated from their homes in southern and northern Israel amid the wars in Gaza with Hamas and the Lebanon border with Hezbollah.
