The Zionist Occupation Can No Longer Hide Its Losses

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Despite heavy internal censorship by the Zionist entity and the US and its European lackey’s muddying the information landscape with maximum disinformation, the occupation can no longer hide its significant losses at the hands of the Resistance fighters.

According to official zionist occupation sources, the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the Al Aqsa Flood Operation has risen to 498. Of those, 164 of them were liquidated during the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the official number of injured reached 2,066. Last week, the occupation forces’ withdrew their elite Golani Brigade’s 13th Batallion from the Gaza Strip after suffering substantial losses in its ranks.

This Wednesday, the “Israeli” army admitted the death of three soldiers serving in the Givati Brigade, another of the occupation army’s elite forces. According to the Zionist media, the transfer of the wounded to hospitals is carried out at night and in helicopters. Israeli occupation newspaper Haaretz reported on December 10, that Israel was refusing to release information on casualties suffered during the war. This has led to speculation that the army has sought to hide the dead and wounded toll in an effort to maintain morale amongst its soldiers and convey the image to the public it is winning the war against the Palestinian resistance.

On December 23, US outlet The Intercept released leaked documents from the “Israeli” Military Censor that reveal the magnitude of the censorship imposed on occupation media outlets by the army. According to the article, since October 7th “more than 6,500 news items were either completely censored or partially censored by the Israeli government.”

Haaretz therefore sought to report on casualty levels based on details from Israeli hospital officials. However, data from hospitals gathered by Haaretz shows that the number of wounded soldiers by that time was 3,117, which is twice the number reported by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Zionist savagery backfires: even fungi reject the occupiers
Additionally, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority (Kan 11) revealed earlier this week that dozens of occupation soldiers have become seriously ill due to an infection by a deadly fungus. According to Kan 11, some of the injured soldiers, who returned from the war in the Gaza Strip, are being treated in the ICU, and their condition was described as “very serious.” According to Lebanese outlet Al-Akhbar, “Israeli” epidemiologists have declared an emergency meeting to discuss the dangerous repercussions of the fungi, and the possibility of an outbreak among occupation soldiers. The “Israeli” epidemiologists suspect that its source is contaminated soil in Gaza, which was mixed with sewage after the occupation army destroyed the sewage pumps in the northern areas of the Gaza Strip.

The deadly fungus is not the first disease to affect enemy soldiers participating in the war of extermination on Gaza. The Zionist newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed earlier this month that the army faced a massive outbreak of intestinal diseases and cases of food poisoning among its soldiers. Dozens of soldiers were transferred to the hospital with cases of dysentary that were “caused by a combination of expired donated food that was stored in an unprofessional way, and lack of personal hygiene.”

It seems the colonizers who, for years have used biological weapons against the Palestinians, are getting a taste of their own savagery.

Veteran Iran Military Advisor in Syria Martyred in Israeli Strike

Hezbollah intensifies attacks on “Israeli” positions
Also on Wednesday, Hezbollah attacked Israeli targets in the north of the occupied territories six times in response to “Israel’s” attacks on civilians in Bint Jbeil, as reported by Al-Mayadeen. On December 26, the IOF martyred newlyweds Ibrahim Bazzi and Shorouk Hamoud as well as Ibrahim’s brother Ali Bazzi. It is noteworthy that the Secretary General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah had previously announced in November that every Lebanese civilian killed by the occupation will result in equal retaliation against “Israeli” civilians.

“In support of the resilient Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in solidarity with their brave and honorable resistance, and in response to the repeated crimes of the enemy and targeting the homes of civilians in Bint Jbeil, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted Kiryat Shmona settlement (the occupied town of Al-Khalsa) at 04:30 PM on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, with thirty (30) Katyusha rockets.” reported the Islamic Resistance Movement of Lebanon (Hezbollah) in a statement issued this Wednesday.

On the same day, Hezbollah launched high-caliber Burkan-type missiles against a military outpost and carried out significant attacks against “Israeli” military gatherings, using drones, ATGM’s, and artillery in the north of the occupied territories. The Burkan missile carries a massive warhead that contains between 300 and 500 kilograms of explosives and has a range of up to 10 kilometers. Hezbollah used it against “Israeli” targets for the first time in November. Lebanese news outlet Al-Manar released footage of the attacks and more details of the operations.

Since the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist entity’s genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza, Hezbollah has declared its support for Palestinian resistance fighters and has launched daily attacks at Israeli military positions.

Hezbollah’s solidarity with the Palestinian people has put tremendous pressure on the occupation. Al-Mayadeen quoted former “Israeli” Security Minister Avigdor Lieberman as saying “what is happening in the North is extremely dangerous” and that over 100,000 settlers have retreated from the northern region of Occupied Palestine on the border with Lebanon. In the opinion of this author, the evacuation of settlers from stolen territory is itself a form of decolonization and another testament to the incredible successes of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation and the subsequent operations carried out by Palestine’s regional allies in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.

Gaza: the Resistance punishes Zionist arrogance
Just today, al-Qassam announced targeting two Israeli helicopters with surface-to-air SA-18 missiles, one in the Saftawi area north of Gaza City and the other east of Jabalia refugee camp.

Furthermore, the group said its fighters engaged with an Israeli force in the Saftawi area for six consecutive hours the night before. The heavy fighting forced the occupation soldiers to call in a helicopter to cover the retreat of their troops. Al-Qassam also announced the successful deployment of another new weapon, the RPO-A rocket, a Russian-made anti-fortification shell known as “Shmel.”

On December 21st, the spokesperson for Al-Qassam Abu Obeida announced that the Resistance had partially or totally destroyed over 720 occupation vehicles in Gaza since the beginning of the ground invasion including troop carriers, tanks, bulldozers, and military trucks. He announced “our forces continue to destroy the enemy’s military vehicles and lure its soldiers into deadly traps and ambushes.”

Imperialists can only do two things: murder and lie
As the US-Israeli war on the Palestinians approaches its third month, it is noteworthy that the occupation has been unable to achieve any strategic victories in the Gaza Strip. It has been unable to free a single one of its POW’s outside of prisoner exchange; it has not succeeded in eliminating the leadership of the Resistance despite endless claims that it is “close to eliminating” Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar; it has not significantly diminished the capacities of the resistance in any way, this is proven by the fact Resistance rockets continue to strike “Tel-Aviv” and other occupation cities on a daily basis; it has not succeeded in breaking the spirit of the brave Palestinians or uprooting the people of Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula. It is quite evident that the United States, which is leading this war, and the Zionist entity’s only “successes” consist of bombing civilian infrastructure and martyring civilians.

Since October 7, the genocidal war on Gaza has claimed the lives of at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to local health authorities. Thousands of innocent civilians are unaccounted for, trapped under the rubble, due to the scorched earth nature of the Zionist genocide.

The imperialists who are hellbent on annihilating Palestine are only capable of two things: murdering civilians and lying about their crimes and their losses. The longer this war drags on, the more the Resistance continues to punish the occupiers for their arrogance and their crimes against humanity.

Orinoco Tribune Special by Dalal al-Zainabi

OT/DZ/JRE