The story continues from Part 1….https://behindthenews.co.za/the-resistance-in-gaza-begins-phase-2-part-1-of-a-3-part-series/
Now, let’s read the reality as compared to the nonsense pushed by the MSM, or the “empire of lies”.
8. Battle Ground Realities:
Gaza
Let’s look at the several types of ground warfare amidst the rubble of Gaza.
Asymmetric warfare in the 21st century:-
*The first is ambushes of soldiers and tanks;
*The second is to bait the invaders into tunnels, houses and along pre-planned routes leading to ambush zones;
*Troop gatherings are hit with various weapons;
*Sniping senior commanders;
Surprise attacks on naval and military bases.
*Shooting down drones, and as well as hacking drones and taking control of them; hitting helicopters with SAM missiles.
*Firing missiles, mortar shells and rockets at Israeli towns and cities.
9. The Jabaliya Cauldron & the North
Un January, Israel announced the redeployment of its forces, withdrawing from most northern areas and stationing mainly in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, intending to move toward areas where resistance continued, mostly southward of the Strip.
The IOF launched a massive attack on Jabaliya and its surrounds at the beginning of May. The timing of the attack in the north coincided with the attack on Rafah in the south. When the IOF enters any area, they destroy that place and only withdraw after sustaining massive losses in equipment and manpower. The IOF gives the reason that thy “have destroyed x number of Hamas battalions “. This is to cover up their defeats. Then, the IOF regroups and returns. The Resistance, once again, deals them severe blows. Then, the IOF retreats. It is “rinse and repeat” – time and time again; area after area. To hide the frustration and defeat, the Zionist army conducts what it does best – killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure. After sustaining heavy losses in Jabalia, the Israeli army was further confronted with the realities of its impending defeat. Genocide is no longer the course to successfully impose Israeli political will upon the Palestinians by force, and the reversal of expansion and taste of defeat that first struck the entity in 2000 will quickly accelerate to “Israel’s” downfall. As Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Abu Hamza said in his latest speech, it is “the horror of attrition that will drive the enemy out of Gaza.” Tel Aviv is running short on change to buy more time out of its quickly transpiring political and entity-wide disintegration, with no cards left to play either on the battlefield or military arena.
The ground situation in north of Gaza City, is more than merely a military clash between an invading force and resistance fighters fighting a “guerrilla war.” The deeper implication of the sudden battles that have sprung up in Gaza’s largest camp is that Israel is far more entangled than it wants to acknowledge, mirroring the US experience in its disastrous Vietnam quagmire.
Tel Aviv’s confidence that matters had swung in its favor in Jabalia was misplaced. Today, the occupation army’s announced losses – in both soldiers and hardware – confirm that a fierce fight is taking place in the camp and its environs. The resurgence of resistance in Jabalia, in fierce battles that have caught the Israeli army off guard, therefore, points to what some may call a ‘miracle.’ The intention behind these attacks was to force the inhabitants to flee to the south, thus implementing the ‘depopulation ‘of the north. Intentions precede actions. From these actions, we can see how the game-plan is turning into reality. “In the last couple of hours, we have recorded a clear surge in bombardment, not only on residential buildings, but also on the camp’s central market. The place is very densely populated,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported a few days after the IOF began its attack. Jabalia camp is now the “main battle zone”. Citing Israeli soldiers, Haaretz on 14 May that troops currently fighting in Jabalia are frustrated to be back in northern Gaza, where resistance fighters remain entrenched several months after Tel Aviv claimed it “dismantled” Hamas. The soldiers also say they have to adapt to the changing tactics of resistance fighters, who have increasingly been rigging buildings with explosives and detonating them with Israeli troops inside. Traditional tactics, including RPG attacks on tanks and vehicles, sniping operations, and mortar attacks on troop concentrations, continue to be deployed. The Qassam Brigades have released several videos over the past few months showcasing their operations against troops in Jabalia.
The Israeli army withdrew some of its forces from the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in northern Gaza on 15 May following battles with the Palestinian resistance. The troops withdrew after a week of operations there, Israel’s Broadcasting Authority reported. Citing army sources, it added that fighting is ongoing in three areas: Jabalia in the north, Rafah in the south, and the Netzarim axis near the center of the strip. “This morning the forces of the battle team of the Nahal Brigade have finished operating in the Al-Zaytoun area and are preparing for further offensive operations, the battle team of the 2nd Brigade continues to operate in the Al-Zaytoun area,” an army spokesman said in a statement. Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said on 14 May that they targeted Israeli troops in Al-Zaytoun with mortar fire. Tel Aviv confirmed the killing of five Israeli soldiers in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood. According to an army probe, they were killed by explosives detonated by resistance fighters. Fighting continued in the area in the days that followed. Those killed belonged to the 931st Battalion of the Nahal Brigade, which withdrew from the neighborhood on Wednesday morning. As part of efforts to clear north Gaza of Hamas fighters in February, Israeli forces launched an operation and took severe losses during battles with the resistance. The army withdrew from the neighborhood on 29 February under heavy fire. This latest withdrawal from the area comes as intense battles rage in northern Gaza, where Israeli army has returned months after claiming to have dismantled Hamas’ battalions.
Fighting in north Gaza’s in particular has been a major thorn in the side of Israel’s military. The Qassam Brigades announced in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that it carried out an operation that killed 12 Israeli soldiers in the Jabalia refugee camp. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) Quds Brigades also said it engaged in fierce clashes in Jabalia on Wednesday, leaving several troops dead and wounded. Rockets continue to fire out of northern Gaza towards cities and towns in southern Israel, indicating that the resistance’s military capabilities are intact. On the 12th August, Hamas fired 2 M-90 missiles targeting Tel Aviv. This was done to refute the IOF lie that they have “cleared” this or that area of Resistance fighters. Time and again we find that the Resistance in Gaza is firing rockets and missiles at Israeli cities and towns.
This has shocked Israel and its western backers. Today, Gaza is the most surveilled piece of land in the world. Satellites, drones and other spying equipment is focused on Gaza 24/7. Even with all that, missiles and rockets continue to be fired from Gaza towards Israel. It is nothing short of a miracle.
The Israeli Kan 11 channel revealed today that as it has failed to achieve its declared goals about eight months after the start of the Israeli war on Gaza. In the tenth month of the war, the Israeli army returned to fighting in areas in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli soldiers were among the dead and injured after the regime claimed that they had been “cleared.”
The Israeli army stepped up its brutal attacks on Gaza City in the north of the strip on 8 July, killing several Palestinians. “Occupation warplanes bombed a group of civilians” in Shujaiya, local sources told the outlet’s correspondent. WAFA also reported that Israeli army warships targeted the Fisherman’s District west of Gaza City. The attacks came just hours after an indiscriminate Israeli airstrike on a home in the city of Jabalia, northern Gaza. Late on Sunday evening, Israeli jets struck a house in killing at least ten Palestinians. Dozens were injured in the attack, and several have been reported missing due to being trapped underneath rubble. “Occupation forces suddenly entered large areas southwest of Gaza City under cover of heavy fire, targeting roads, homes and residential buildings … Military vehicles stormed Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, the industrial and university area, and the southern outskirts of Rimal neighborhood,” WAFA reported. Israeli troops re-entered several areas of Gaza City in late June for new ground operations to target the Palestinian resistance, which came months after Tel Aviv claimed to have “dismantled” Hamas in the north of Gaza. Clashes have since been raging across the northern strip. Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, announced an RPG attack on an Israeli Merkava tank in the Shujaiya neighborhood on 7 July.
Civil defense crews in Gaza City said bodies and homes were found completely charred due to brutal Israeli attacks, bodies were found scattered across alleys and destroyed homes in Gaza City on 12 July, civil defense crews reported, coming hours after Israeli forces withdrew from the area and left a trail of destruction behind them. “Our crews have begun operations to retrieve the martyrs in the industrial area, Al-Katiba, and Tal al-Hawa, and we are working to extinguish the fires in homes burned by the occupation forces,” civil defense spokesman said. “We found charred bodies of martyrs and completely burned houses in Tal al-Hawa [and elsewhere],” he added.
The Israeli army withdrew from Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood on 11 July. On Wednesday, Tel Aviv announced the end of operations in Shujaiya – where its forces have been taking heavy losses in battles against the resistance. The army continued to operate in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood before withdrawing on Friday. After the withdrawal on Thursday, Gaza’s civil defense at least 60 bodies under the rubble in Shujaiya. “The Shujaiya neighborhood has become a disaster area that is unlivable,” it said. The civil defense cited testimonies of residents in the area, who said Israeli forces fired tank shells at them after promising they would be safe.
Israeli troops pushed back into Shujaiya and other areas of Gaza City on 27 June, months after claiming that Hamas had been dismantled in the northern strip. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have since been displaced as a result of the incursion and forced evacuations ordered by Tel Aviv. Israeli forces have been facing stiff resistance and have been unable to clear Gaza City of Hamas’ armed wing and other groups despite several operations in the area over the past eight months. The Qassam Brigades released footage on 11 July showing their fighters targeting Israeli forces with gunfire and RPGs in the Shujaiya neighborhood.
In late June, Israeli reserve General Yitzhak Brik said that Israel was losing the war and that claims of dealing heavy blows to Hamas were all false. “The occupation did not stop there; it also completely destroyed the Sabha Medical Clinic, which served over 60,000 residents in the neighborhood, providing first aid during the war to the injured and sick. Unfortunately, it is now completely destroyed and unusable,” the civil defense said on 11 July.
Hamas says that Tel Aviv’s claims of controlling the north and center of the Strip before focusing on the south were always false and that the resistance still retains its strength and leadership. Their comments that northern Gaza is not under Israeli control, as it has often claimed, are evidenced by resurgent battles in the north of the Strip. In the tenth month of the war, the Israeli army returned to fighting in areas in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli soldiers were among the dead and injured after the regime claimed that they had been “cleared.”
At the war’s onset, Israeli forces moved from several directions toward the Strip, including Al-Atatreh, Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, and Shujaiya in the north and northeast, and from central axes like Juhr al-Dik and Al-Zaytoun neighborhood towards Sheikh Ajlin near the coast – ostensibly to further tighten their control over Gaza’s north. The Israeli aim, as explained above, is to “depopulate “northern Gaza. By bombing, killing and genociding the people, Israel hopes to push them to the south=towards Rafah, and then expel them out of Gaza. But, the Resistance is not allowing that to happen.
As clashes between the army and resistance rage across Jabalia, Israel has stepped up its indiscriminate bombardment of the city. Jabalia camp is now the main battle zone. Israeli troops currently fighting in Jabalia are frustrated to be back in northern Gaza, where resistance fighters remain entrenched several months after Tel Aviv claimed it “dismantled” Hamas. The soldiers also say they have to adapt to the changing tactics of resistance fighters, who have increasingly been rigging buildings with explosives and detonating them with Israeli troops inside. Traditional tactics, including RPG attacks on tanks and vehicles, sniping operations, and mortar attacks on troop concentrations, continue to be deployed. The Qassam Brigades have released several videos over the past few weeks showcasing their operations against troops in Jabalia.
Fighting is ongoing in three areas: Jabalia in the north, Rafah in the south, and the Netzarim axis near the center of the strip. The Netzarim Junction is under constant daily attacks. The Resistance is giving the IOF no break in installing their new bases in the Junction. Rockets continue to fire out of northern Gaza towards cities and towns in southern Israel, indicating that the resistance’s military capabilities are intact. Resistance operations against Israeli troops in the southernmost city of Rafah have been ongoing since the army seized the city’s border crossing on 7 May and began pushing into the city.
Major General in the Israeli Reserve Army Yitzhak Brik on Thursday said that the current war unfolding in Gaza is a “war of attrition” and warned that its prolongation “will lead to the collapse of the army and economy in Israel.” Speaking to Israeli broadcaster Channel 13, Brik said that “the Israeli army needs immediate rehabilitation” and there is an urgent need to increase the number of ground forces. Brik acknowledged the army’s failure in defeating the Resistance, noting that the Strip “represents one [front] out of six,” and the war against it “does not involve launching thousands of rockets daily (as is the case of other war scenarios with other fronts, such as and Iran).” Addressing the reasons that would lead to the collapse of “the army” and the Israeli economy in the event of the war’s prolongation, Brik warned of “the absence of soldiers (to replace those currently on the ground), the absence of workers amid international isolation facing Israel.”
Earlier on Thursday, Knesset member Amit Levy said that “all 24 Hamas brigades are present [in Gaza] and not a single one of them has been destroyed.” In addition to the Resistance’s resilience, the Islamic Jihad movement remains present, “they lied to us that it had been eliminated,” Levy told Channel 14. These statements come amid increasing doubts about the objectives of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, as Israeli troops return to old battlefields in the Strip, according to Reuters. In the north, the IOF are facing daily defeats. There are multiple operations conducted by the various Resistance groups. The IOF suffers very heavy losses in manpower and equipment, while moral is declining.
The Resistance can take losses, as there are new recruits are joining, especially considering the ongoing genocide being conducted against them. This, while Israel has run out of local manpower, there are foreign Jews and mercenaries who have joined the IOF. Many of these are being killed and wounded on a daily basis, as we shall read in the next part.
10. The Rafah Cauldron & the South
Israel Destroys the Rafah Crossing
The Palestinian Government Media Office in Gaza has announced that medical evacuations have been blocked; noting that 25,000 injured Palestinians have been denied travel for critical medical treatment after the Rafah crossing was burned down and taken over by Israeli occupation forces.
Similarly, since the occupation of the Rafah border crossing, humanitarian aid has been halted with 15,000 trucks carrying essential supplies stranded at the Egyptian side of the border crossing as their entry continues to be blocked by Israeli occupation forces. This blockade is significantly worsening the famine in the Gaza Strip.
In conclusion, the Director of the Government Media Office in Gaza reaffirmed that the famine is worsening dangerously in the Gaza Strip highlighting that the burning and bulldozing of the Rafah crossing must serve as evidence of the Israeli occupation’s genocidal intent.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have destroyed the entire Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, rendering it unusable. For the first time Gaza’s sole border crossing with Egypt has been completely destroyed to the point that it can no longer be used.
Israeli Army Radio issued the following statement days ago: “This is how Rafah crossing looks today, completely destroyed and no longer usable, after being taken over by Brigade 401 in one night.” The statement added that “Due to its relative proximity to the border, the Israeli army used the crossing as a stopping point and resting area.”
Throughout most of the conflict which goes back to Oct.7, Palestinian officials operated on one side and Egyptian border troops on the other. The government of Egypt has long been bracing for a possible flood of refugees especially after Israel’s ground offensive in Rafah kicked off.
That Rafah crossing is now effectively closed and guarded by the IDF, which will only add to the unfolding humanitarian disaster as civilians are trapped with nowhere to go amid the Israel-Hamas battles raging on streets across southern Gaza. The crossing, located on the southern border with Egypt, is the main route for international humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
As for the physical state of the crossing itself, war correspondents have confirmed that the exterior of the structure was incinerated: “Occupation forces damaged Rafah crossing’s halls that were used by locals to exit the Strip.” Israeli forces have razed a number of buildings here besides blocking humanitarian aid and personnel from entering Gaza.
By closing and destroying the Rafah crossing, Israel has stopped all further aid going into Gaza. Food shortages have reached alarmingly high levels. This has increased the malnutrition levels amongst the Gazans. The aim behind this is to force the Palestinians to exit Gaza and settle down into the Sinai. Thus, the depopulation of Gaza can be accomplished. So, either bomb them, or starve them to death, if that is what it takes to expel the Palestinians from Gaza.
The Palestinian resistance is also confronting Israeli forces in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. Israeli forces seized the Rafah border crossing to Egypt on 7 May and began pushing into the city under the cover of heavy and indiscriminate bombardment. When the invasion of Rafah began on May 7th, an additional IOF brigade moved into the Jabaliya area in north Gaza. There has been extensive attacks, massacres, atrocities and killings in Jabaliya and its surrounding areas.
Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced by the operation, which has also severely hindered efforts to bring aid into Gaza.
The Tunnel Network
The Israeli army has discovered a complex system of multi-story Hamas tunnels along the Egyptian border in the southern Gaza Strip. An 8 June report by citing an anonymous Israeli official, details a recent army operation that exposed “dozens” of these sophisticated underground passageways. The tunnels have allowed Hamas “to significantly enhance its capabilities over the years since [Israel’s] withdrawal from [Gaza in 2005],” the report states. “The sophisticated infrastructure developed undetected, not only under Israeli surveillance but also despite Egyptian border control efforts. This network has played a crucial role in Hamas’s transformation into a formidable fighting force.” According to the source cited in the report, the Israeli operation along the Egypt border is ongoing and is focusing on locating more of these tunnels.
It was reported in late May that the Israeli army found 20 tunnels leading into Egypt through the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the edge of Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah. The report claimed that Tel Aviv destroyed 14 of these tunnels and said that there were potentially several other undiscovered passageways.
In an interview in late June, Israeli reserve general Yitzhak Brik contradicted claims that Tel Aviv has managed to destroy or disable the tunnels that run along the Philadelphi Corridor. “There is no way to seal the tunnels that reach the Sinai,” Brik said. “The tunnels that they say are the oxygen of Hamas, which they use to transfer weapons. The army claims it has full control over the Philadelphi Corridor, and that they have closed the tunnels. It’s not true!”
A report on 8 June by Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 said that Hamas’ tunnels under the rest of Gaza are “still in good condition” and that the resistance group has been able to restore many in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The Philadelphi Corridor has long been a vital lifeline in the besieged Gaza Strip. It is used by the resistance to bring arms into Gaza, as well as by regular Gazans to smuggle in everyday necessities.
Israel seized the Rafah crossing on 7 May and began pushing into the southernmost city in defiance of months of international warnings, displacing around one million Palestinians. The Philadelphi corridor was then taken over by Israeli forces later that month.
The story continues in Part 3 ….
