Israel is Retreating in Northern Gaza, Trying to Advance in South – Qassam

December 3, 2023 Articles, Features
Qassam Brigades fighters in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Israel has evacuated nearly 70 percent of its forces from the northern Gaza Strip, according to a source in Al-Qassam Brigades, speaking to Al-Jazeera Arabic channel.

The reason behind the Israeli decision to reduce the intensity of its military operations in the north is the steadfastness of Palestinian Resistance, according to the source. 

Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, and on October 27 it began a large-scale ground military operation in the northern regions of the Strip. 

In numerous videos documenting Resistance attacks, Al-Qassam Brigades has demonstrated its ability to strike, with direct hits, hundreds of Israeli military vehicles, including the much-touted Merkava tanks. 

Other videos showed Israeli soldiers being sniped by Resistance fighters, or blown up by carefully implanted explosive devices.

The fierce fighting in the north has involved, aside from Al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Though Israel has largely undercounted its casualties in Gaza, a report issued by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on November 28, showed that over 1,000 Israeli soldiers have been wounded by the Palestinian Resistance, with 202 in critical condition. 

Scores Killed 

On Sunday alone, Al-Qassam Brigades revealed that dozens of Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded in battles in the north and south of Gaza. They include over 60 soldiers who were ambushed inside a building in an area known as the Juhr Al-Dik, east of Gaza City.

According to Al-Qassam, all Israeli soldiers, ambushed in the attack, fell dead or wounded, and its fighters mowed down soldiers who attempted to escape the area. 

Similar reports were also issued regarding Israeli losses in central and southern Gaza, especially in the Deir Al-Balah and Khan Yunis regions. 

Retreat 

According to the unnamed ‘leading source’ in the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Israeli ground operation has now moved to the south, in conjunction with ‘limited maneuvering operations’ in the north. 

According to the source, the military withdrawal from the north, estimated at 70 percent of all Israeli forces, began during the temporary humanitarian truce, which ended on Friday. 

This retreat was accelerated in the last two days, according to the source, under the heavy blows of the Palestinian Resistance.

These attacks included the destruction of several Israeli military tanks, military bulldozers, and several personnel carriers, Namer, in the Beith Lahia and the Beit Hanoun regions, in the last 24 hours. 

These strikes were carried out using Yassin-105 shells, TBG shells, Tandem shells, mortar shells and explosive devices.  

In the south, the Khan Yunis branch of Al-Qassam, considered to be one of the strongest of all Qassam units, has already announced several operations, killing and wounding a number of advancing Israeli soldiers. 

The current Israeli military strategy seems to focus on dividing the Gaza Strip to three regions: north, center and south.

While this division, if it succeeds, will impact an already derailed free movement of Palestinians attempting to escape the horrors of the war, it is unlikely to impact the movement of the fighters themselves, who operate mostly from underground tunnels.

(The Palestine Chronicle) 

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1 Comment

  1. “ the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement” they are a resistant group of men and it’s triggering to use the term “jihad” to Iraqi or Syrian citizen!!! You need to be very careful with how you write

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