Fierce battles in Rafah and the occupation intensifies its bombing on various areas in the Gaza Strip

Battles have been raging between Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli occupation forces, since dawn on Friday, in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, coinciding with violent Israeli bombing targeting several areas in the Strip.

Local sources reported that sounds of exchange of gunfire and violent explosions had been heard continuously since dawn today (Friday), east of Rafah, especially in the vicinity of the “Saad Sayel” area in the Tabet Zare area.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, spoke in a statement about carrying out a complex and simultaneous military operation near the Al-Dawa Mosque, east of the city.

The Brigades added that its fighters “targeted a building in which a number of Israeli soldiers were holed up, with a (TBG) shell, and at the same time they targeted a troop carrier that was under the building with a (Al-Yassin 105) shell. They also targeted a foot group of soldiers who were next to the tanker with an anti-personnel shell and killed the entire force.” "Between dead and wounded."

Al-Qassam also announced, in separate statements, the targeting of an Israeli “Merkava” tank with a “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the Abu Halawa area, east of the city of Rafah, and the destruction of an Israeli troop carrier, setting it on fire, and targeting two tanks with a “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the vicinity of the Saad Sayel area, east of the city.

It said that it "trapped an Israeli force in a precise ambush after detonating a pre-prepared minefield there, east of Rafah."

In another statement, the Phalange announced the bombing of the Israeli “Isnad Sufa” military site on the Gaza Strip with a 114 mm short-range “Rajum” missile system.

In Gaza City, clashes have continued between Palestinian resistance factions and the invading occupation forces since yesterday morning (Thursday), in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of the city.

Al-Qassam said in a statement that its fighters were “engaged in fierce clashes with enemy forces penetrating south of the Zaytoun neighborhood.”

It indicated that its fighters "destroyed an Israeli Merkava 4 tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell south of the Zaytoun neighborhood."

Dozens of martyrs and injured

Meanwhile, various areas of Rafah were subjected to heavy air and artillery bombardment, which led to the death and injury of a number of Palestinians.

Israeli artillery bombed the vicinity of the eastern taxi stand in the center of Rafah with a number of shells, while the Israeli forces penetrating east of the city blew up a number of houses, and bombed another house in the “Khirbet Al-Adas” area, north of the city.

Medical sources at the Kuwaiti Hospital said that during the past 24 hours, 9 martyrs and 17 wounded arrived at the hospital as a result of the ongoing Israeli raids on Rafah.

In the city of Khan Yunis (south), Israeli aircraft bombed a house, resulting in the death of 8 Palestinians, including women and children, according to medical sources at the European Hospital in the city.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, with American support, that has left tens of thousands martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.