Air raid sirens sounded Wednesday evening across Askalan and several Gaza-enclosed settlements, following a fresh wave of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.
According to Zionist media, three rockets were launched from northern Gaza shortly after the initial siren alerts, setting off a second round of alarms in the northern Gaza envelope. The strikes reportedly targeted a Zionist tank gathering stationed along the perimeter fence north of the besieged Strip.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that the barrage was launched at the occupied cities of Asdod and Askalan. The group confirmed the operation was “in response to the Zionist massacres against our Palestinian people.”
The renewed resistance response comes just hours after the occupation forces confirmed the death of a First Sergeant and the injury of another soldier in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, earlier Wednesday.
Zionist deaths mounting
Resistance announces several operations
Palestinian Resistance groups announced several operations against Zionist troops, as the latter launched their wide-scale ground invasion of Gaza, further escalating the genocide against Palestinians.
Palestinian Resistance fighters detonated a pre-planted GBU-39/B bomb abandoned by occupation forces, destroying military vehicle during its advance on al-Muntar Street in Gaza City’s al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood on May 12, al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement reported on Tuesday.
In the same context, Abu Khaled, the spokesperson for the Martyr Omar al-Qassim Forces, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), confirmed that one of their combat units, operating in northwestern Gaza, set up a well-planned ambush for a Zionist infantry patrol in the al-Atatra area.
Abu Khaled explained that the area had been rigged with explosive devices. The fighters lured the advancing troops into the ambush, where they opened fire and detonated the explosives beneath the soldiers, causing direct casualties. The Zionist force was forced to call for drone-supported reinforcements.
The spokesperson explained that the operation’s staging area had been prepared with explosive devices, allowing the fighters to draw the advancing Zionistforces into the ambush, where they unleashed gunfire and detonated the planted explosives at close range, inflicting direct casualties among the soldiers and forcing the Israeli unit to request drone-assisted reinforcements.
Abu Khaled added that the group’s commander, Zakaria Rami Abu Ouda, was martyred in the fighting, noting that Abu Ouda’s comrades managed to retrieve his body from the battlefield and return it to their positions.
Occupation admits one soldier killed in Gaza
Meanwhile, the occupation military acknowledged the death of one of its soldiers during ongoing confrontations in northern Gaza, identifying him as Yosef Yehuda Hirak from the 601st Engineering Battalion. This brings the total number of Zionist troops killed since the war began on October 7, 2023, to 857.
In the same area, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had earlier announced carrying out a coordinated ambush against occupation forces in the al-Atatra area west of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
According to the al-Qassam Brigades’ statement, three military vehicles were targeted with two “Shawaz” explosive devices and a “Tandem” shell, followed by direct confrontations with another Israeli force. The Brigades confirmed that the operation resulted in dead and wounded among the occupation forces, with Israeli military helicopters seen landing at the site to evacuate casualties.