The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned Germany’s plan to supply about 10,000 tank shells to the Israeli army. The movement stated on Wednesday that this move “makes Germany a direct accomplice in the war on our people in Gaza,” and holds Germany “fully accountable for the war crimes committed by the Nazi-Zionist regime and the genocide against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas asserted that the Palestinian people “will never forgive or forget anyone who took part in the aggression against them or provided cover for this criminal enemy who crossed all red lines.”
On Tuesday, the German magazine “Der Spiegel” disclosed that the German authorities had approved an Israeli request to acquire 10,000 guided 120-millimeter artillery shells.
Meanwhile, hundreds of intellectuals and artists from around the world signed a petition demanding a boycott of German cultural institutions for silencing the voice of the Palestinians amid the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. The organisers of the “Boycott Germany” campaign said that their petition had gathered more than 1,000 signatures so far.
The campaign describes itself on its website as “a boycott of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship in its most sophisticated and official forms.” “At a time when Gaza is being obliterated, artists and cultural workers must stand for international solidarity and the right to speak out against the ongoing slaughter,” the campaign states.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death toll from the Israeli attack on Gaza since October 7th has reached 24,448, and the number of wounded has risen to 61,504.
The ministry said that the Israeli forces carried out 16 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 163 people and injuring 350 in the last 24 hours. The ministry also warned of the outbreak of hepatitis A due to the lack of sanitation and overcrowding in the shelters for the displaced people in Gaza.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urged the parties to avoid escalating the conflict in the region. He said: “The situation in the Red Sea demonstrates the urgency of ending the violence in Gaza and freeing the hostages.”
On the ground, the Israeli radio reported that several reserve soldiers refused to join the fighting in the Gaza Strip. The radio said that the soldiers who declined to fight complained of serious deficiencies in the level of training.
The Israeli army also announced that 35 soldiers were wounded in the clashes in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – said that its fighters attacked an Israeli infantry unit, killing and injuring some of them on the edge of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City, and claimed that they killed an Israeli soldier driving a vehicle in the same area.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also said that its fighters ambushed an Israeli special force inside a house in the Karama neighbourhood, northwest of Gaza City. The Al-Qassam Brigades also said that they hit an Israeli tank in the Karama neighbourhood, northwest of Gaza City, with an Al-Yassin 105 shell.
The Brigades announced that its fighters destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with an Al-Yassin 105 shell on Jabal Al-Rayes, east of the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City. The movement said that its fighters destroyed 6 Israeli Merkava tanks and a troop carrier in the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.
“In a joint mission with the Al-Quds Brigades, we destroyed a Zionist bulldozer with an anti-armour device in Al-Maghazi camp. Our mujahideen sniped 4 Zionist soldiers, targeted a force of 7 soldiers, and finished them off from a distance of zero. Our Mujahideen detonated an explosive device with a group of soldiers barricaded inside a mosque and then finished them off,” the movement said.
For its part, the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement – said that it took control of an Israeli drone during a reconnaissance mission east of Gaza.
