The death toll from the Al-Maghazi operation reached 21 Israelis (Getty)
The Al-Qassam Brigades said that it carried out a complex operation - yesterday, Monday - east of the Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of 21 Israeli soldiers.
Al-Qassam - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - explained that it targeted a house east of the Maghazi camp in which an Israeli force was holed up, which led to the explosion of the ammunition it was in possession of.
It added that it detonated a minefield in another Israeli force that was in the same place, causing its members to be killed or wounded.
Al-Qassam also destroyed a Merkava tank that was securing the force holed up in the house east of the Maghazi camp with a Yassin 105 shell.
Yesterday, Monday, a Palestinian resistance operation in the Maghazi camp resulted in the killing of 21 Israeli soldiers. The occupation army announced it Tuesday morning, describing it as the most difficult since the beginning of the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on October 27 of last year.
In reactions to the large number of deaths among the Israeli army, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Yesterday was one of the most difficult days since the outbreak of the war."
He added that the killing of 24 (3 officers in the battles in Khan Yunis) soldiers in Gaza will not stop Israel’s efforts to achieve absolute victory, as he put it.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said that Israel suffered a severe blow on Monday, with 24 soldiers killed.
For his part, army spokesman Daniel Hagari explained that Palestinian fighters fired an RPG missile at a tank that was securing the Israeli force, and at the same time an explosion occurred in two two-story buildings, while most of the force was present inside them, or near them.
For its part, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that the incident occurred when soldiers booby-trapped two buildings in the camp. Hamas members then fired anti-tank missiles, which led to the explosion of explosive devices and the collapse of the two buildings on the Israeli soldiers.
She added that the explosion that killed the soldiers occurred 600 meters from the border fence, stressing that rescue operations for those injured in the collapse of the two buildings from under the rubble continued for long hours last night.
She pointed out that the tank crew, which was there to secure the soldiers at the scene of the accident, was directly hit by a Palestinian fighters’ shell.
Source: Al Jazeera + Israeli press