By Palestine Chronicle Editors

The video was that of what seemed to be an Israeli soldier being pulled, clearly wounded – whether dead or alive – under a tunnel by a rugged-looking fighter somewhere, presumably in northern Gaza. 

As soon as Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, declared the capture of Israeli soldiers soon after midnight on Sunday, a new variable was introduced to the complex scene in Gaza. 

And almost instantly, history began repeating itself: Palestinians celebrated en masse and the Israeli military immediately denied such claims. 

Judging by history, we have no reason to believe that Abu Obeida wasn’t telling the truth. Every statement the masked Palestinian fighter has made since the start of the war proved to be accurate, often with damning evidence of its accuracy. 

The Israelis, on the other hand, do not have that same track record. 

Not many military analysts out there would, for example, argue that Israel is telling the truth about the actual number of its military casualties in Gaza. In fact, the scandal of numbers has been part of the confused Israeli information war since October 7. 

At times, Israel declared a certain number of casualties before, and without explanation, reduced the number significantly. Additionally, numbers produced by Israeli hospitals and medical sources – often communicated through Haaretz and other Israeli media – seemed entirely inconsistent with numbers revealed by Daniel Hagari and other Israeli military spokesmen.

🚨BREAKING – Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades:
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Watch: Al-Qassam Brigades lures a zionist force into one of the tunnels in Jabalia camp, and engaged it at point-blank range, killing, wounding, and capturing all its members. pic.twitter.com/k0DmnGJK1M

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 25, 2024

Palestinian claims, however, have always been verified through well-documented videos, hundreds of them now, widely spread across digital media, news broadcasts all over the world and in every language. 

Even the latest claim by Abu Obeida was verified by a short video and an image.

The video was that of what seemed to be an Israeli soldier being pulled, clearly wounded – whether dead or alive – under a tunnel by a rugged-looking fighter somewhere, presumably in northern Gaza. 

The image was that of the weapons, vests and helmets of Israeli soldiers. Military analysts believe that the weapons displayed in the image were Czech guns, known as CZ Scorpion, which is often used by elite special units in the Israeli army. 

Analysts go as far as identifying that specific unit to be the Shayetet 13 Command Unit, which could also be part of the Shin Bet security service. 

This particular analysis is not just predicated on the type of weapon but also on the color coding of the soldiers’ uniforms, particularly of their boots and socks, which are usually not affiliated with a typical unit in the Israeli army.

This tells us that that special unit may have indeed, as the Resistance claimed, been lured into a tunnel, believing that it had located an important lead on the whereabouts of Israeli captives. 

If these claims are indeed verified, it means that the Resistance continues to have superior intelligence even 232 days into the Israeli war on Gaza. 

History seems to be repeating itself. A similar event had transpired on July 20, 2014: another Israeli war on Gaza, genocide-like outcome, yet another Israeli failed mission in the Strip, which also ended in a disaster for the Israeli army. 

Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that Israeli soldiers were captured, killed and wounded during a Resistance operation on Saturday afternoon in the northern Gaza Strip.https://t.co/1NxtCWr4VB pic.twitter.com/quZnYjnLhE

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 25, 2024

On that specific day, 11 Israeli soldiers were killed in battles in Gaza, according to the military spokesman then. 

The same masked Palestinian fighter, Abu Obeida, appeared in an equally sudden statement just after dawn of that same day, declaring that an Israeli soldier by the name of Shaul Aaron had been captured in the Resistance operation. 

Aaron was captured in the Tuffah neighborhood in the eastern Gaza Strip, only a short distance away from Jabaliya, where the latest operation took place. 

His unit was also lured into an elaborate trap set by the Resistance. The operation, according to the Resistance, resulted in the killing of 14 Israeli soldiers, all eliminated from zero distance. 

Yet almost immediately, the Israeli army denied that such an event had taken place and, according to Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, the capture of a soldier was a mere ‘rumor’.

After initially refusing to comment on the matter, the Israeli army spokesman said that the army was examining the “allegations” before accepting that an Israeli soldier from the Golani Brigade may have gone missing in the Shejaiya neighborhood. The spokesman also suggested that Aaron may have been killed, though his body was never found. 

Secret of Shejaiya – The ‘Brave’ Gaza Neighborhood that Israel Cannot Break

Again, history is repeating itself. But what makes this particular operation far more consequential is that it happened 232 days following the most violent and destructive Israeli war on Gaza, whose main purpose was supposedly to free nearly 130 Israeli captives currently in Gaza – in addition to the original four, who were in the hands of Al-Qassam, including Aaron himself. 

Al-Qassam’s latest video closes with the following sentence: “This is what we are allowed to publish. More to come”. Obviously, this means that more videos will be released to further authenticate Abu Obeida’s original claim and, once more, force Israel to admit that more soldiers have indeed been captured. 

Needless to say, considering the context of this particular war, capturing of more Israeli soldiers – who were supposedly sent to free other Israeli soldiers – would bring an end to the illusion that many Israelis continue to entertain, that defeating Hamas is possible and that releasing the captives will take place through the barrel of a gun. 

(The Palestine Chronicle)