The Israeli army continued its bombing of various areas in the Gaza Strip on the 71st day of its aggression, killing 14 people in the Jabalia camp and clashing with the resistance on several fronts.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Saturday that the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of the aggression had reached 18,787, with 50,897 injured, most of them women and children.
The ministry also said that the Israeli army had destroyed the southern part of Kamal Adwan Hospital, where 12 children were still trapped in incubators without water or food.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – said that the Israeli army had deliberately killed 3 of its soldiers on Friday, preferring to execute them rather than release them, which was a criminal act that it had practiced and continued to practice against its prisoners.
Abu Ubaida added in a statement on Saturday: “The enemy is desperately trying to escape the responsibility of the prisoner issue and its obligations, which it knows well. The enemy is still risking the lives of its soldiers captured by the resistance, not caring about the feelings of their families.”
The Al-Qassam Brigades claimed that they had detonated two explosive devices against an Israeli patrol of 7 soldiers, leaving them “dead and wounded”. They also detonated a third anti-personnel device after a rescue team arrived to help the soldiers.
The brigades said that they had targeted an Israeli troop carrier north of Khan Yunis with an Al-Yassin 105 missile, and an Israeli bulldozer with a Tandom missile, after targeting 3 Merkava tanks east of Khan Yunis.
They also said that they had targeted 3 Israeli Merkava tanks east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, with Al-Yassin 105 missiles, and an Israeli military vehicle south of Deir al-Balah with two Al-Yassin 105 missiles, causing it to catch fire.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that a preliminary investigation showed that the three Israeli soldiers who were declared killed in Gaza had waved white flags and said in Hebrew, “Save us”. Israeli media also quoted a senior Israeli officer as saying, “We were not prepared for a scenario in which captured soldiers would wander freely in the streets of Gaza.”
On Friday, the Israeli army admitted that it had accidentally killed 3 Israeli soldiers in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a tragedy. In contrast, the families of the soldiers protested in front of the Ministry of Defence to demand an immediate swap deal with Hamas.
Israeli TV Channel 12 reported that 20 soldiers had been killed in the battles of Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, in the last week.
Last Wednesday, the Israeli army announced the killing of 10 of its fighters – including officers – in an ambush in Shujaiya, most of them from the Golani Brigade, one of the most important and powerful infantry brigades in the Israeli army, as part of similar announcements amid the escalation of the conflict with the Palestinian resistance.
In a related context, Yahya Saree, the military spokesperson for the Yemeni Houthi group, announced that the group’s fighters had targeted the city of Eilat in southern Israel with drones. Saree said that the group’s drone force had “carried out a military operation against sensitive targets in the Umm al-Rashrash area in southern occupied Palestine with a large number of drones.”
He added that the group “will continue its operations against the Zionist entity until it stops its aggression against Gaza.”
