Clashes in Shuja'iyya and Rafah, Israeli military official: Eliminating Hamas is not easy

Violent clashes erupted this evening, Saturday, between Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli occupation army in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, and the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood west of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that it, along with the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, targeted "two Zionist personnel carriers and a D9 military bulldozer with Al-Yassin 105 shells and an RPG near the Al-Shu'un junction, south of the Tel Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah city."

Al-Qassam later added that its fighters continue to confront "the Zionist forces that have penetrated the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City, through pre-prepared complex ambushes, and are causing deaths and injuries among their ranks, with more than one aircraft landing to evacuate them."

For its part, the occupation army radio said: "There are battles and clashes taking place between its forces and the Palestinian resistance factions in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood," noting that "there is no freedom of action" for the forces on the ground, "so they cannot fight with small forces."

The commander of the 12th Brigade of the occupation army, Lieutenant Colonel Hevry Elbaz, had said earlier on Saturday that "dismantling the Hamas movement in the city of Rafah will take at least two additional years," stressing that the mission of eliminating Hamas "is not easy."

The Israeli military official pointed out that "the fighting in Rafah is proceeding slowly and Hamas fighters have studied us," in clear contradiction with recent Israeli statements that claimed that the Rafah operation was nearing its end and that the four Hamas military battalions in the city had been eliminated.

Since Thursday morning, the Shuja'iyya neighborhood has been witnessing intense aerial and artillery bombardment, coinciding with a limited incursion of military vehicles east of Gaza City, while the Israeli occupation army asked residents and displaced persons to evacuate it and the Tuffah neighborhood.

Since May 6, Israel has been launching a ground offensive in Rafah, and the following day it seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, closing it to the entry of limited humanitarian aid.

With absolute American support, the Israeli war on Gaza since last October 7 has left more than 124,000 Palestinians martyred and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children.