The al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that its fighters carried out a complex ambush in the al-Atatra area west of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Monday.
The al-Qassam Brigades stated that its fighters targeted three Zionist military vehicles with two “Shawaz” explosive devices and a “Tandem” shell, then engaged another occupation force in confrontations. It added that the operation resulted in casualties, killed and wounded, while also reporting the landing of helicopters to evacuate the injured on Friday.
Earlier, a Zionist undercover unit disguised in women’s clothing infiltrated west of Salah al-Din Street in northern Khan Younis, attempting to reach Zionist captives.
The source confirmed that the unit failed in its mission to reach the captives and instead killed Palestinian commander Salah al-Din Ahmed Sarhan from the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades before abducting his wife and children.
This comes as the occupation expands its war on Gaza, launching a wide-scale ground invasion dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots”, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to “take over all of Gaza.”
Occupation launched ground invasion of Gaza
On May 18, the Zionist military revealed that it had initiated a major ground invasion across both northern and southern Gaza, signaling a significant and intensified escalation in the conflict as part of what it has named “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”.
The occupation spokesperson stated that ground troops had launched a widespread invasion across multiple areas of northern and southern Gaza, following intensified airstrikes aimed at weakening the Palestinian Resistance’s capabilities.
The occupation claimed its air force had carried out strikes earlier in the week, hitting more than 670 sites throughout the Gaza Strip in what it described as an effort to degrade the operational capabilities of Gaza’s resistance factions and pave the way for the ongoing ground offensive.
Earlier on May 19, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that hospitals across the Strip have received 136 martyrs, with 11 of them pulled from under the rubble, along with 364 wounded victims during the past 24 hours.
Netanyahu: We are going to take over all of Gaza
On a related note, Netanyahu indicated that pressure on the occupation was “approaching a red line,” necessitating the resumption of aid into Gaza to press ahead with its ground assault.
“[US] Senators I know as supporters of ‘Israel’… come to me and say, ‘We’ll give you all the help you need to win the war… but we can’t be receiving pictures of famine [in Gaza],” Netanyahu said in a video released on his personal Telegram channel.
The occupation announced that “minimal aid” must be distributed in the Strip to prevent mass starvation among the civilian population. However, Netanyahu did threaten that the occupation “is going to take over all of Gaza, that’s what we are going to do.”