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The military and strategic expert, Colonel Hatem Karim Al-Falahi, described the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance in the Al-Zana area, east of the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, as “distinctive” and indicates that the resistance still possesses military capabilities.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that it had caught an Israeli force in an ambush, which it described as a decisive one, in the Zinna area. The brigades said that they had killed 6 Israeli soldiers, wounded others, and targeted 3 Merkava tanks, stressing that confrontations were still continuing in that area. Region.
Al-Falahi explained that the Israeli 7th Brigade of the 36th Division, which operates in the Zinna area, pushed a group of tanks, two of which were destroyed. The Israeli military commanders tried to send reinforcements to evacuate the wounded and dead who fell in the battle, but they fell into a minefield placed by the Palestinian resistance in these areas. He said that the explosion of mines led to other losses among the occupation forces.
He said that the military operations that were launched last December towards Khan Yunis are still continuing, especially in the eastern regions such as Khuza’a, Abasan al-Kabira, Abasan al-Jadidah, al-Zannah, and al-Qarara, which are the crust areas for the defense of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the resistance factions when the Israeli incursion began.
The military expert - who was speaking during the military analytical pause on Al Jazeera - added that when the battle began, the occupation army tried not to engage in battles of attrition in these areas, and rushed to the central and western regions, which are exposed to bombing and some limited military operations.
After the end of major military operations and maneuvers in the western regions, the occupation army began “clearance operations” in the eastern regions, which had not engaged in decisive clashes with the occupation forces in the past period.
Regarding the occupation’s announcement of the recovery of the body of detainee Elad Katzir, Karim Al-Falahi said that the occupation may recover its dead prisoners, highlighting that the issue of recovering prisoners cannot be by using force, which is a failed and incorrect option.
He did not rule out that the issue of this detainee would escalate the internal movement against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Today, Saturday, the Israeli army announced the recovery of the body of detainee Katzir during a commando operation, under the direction of the Internal Security Agency (Shin Bet), in Khan Yunis, confirming in a statement that the detainee was killed while he was in captivity by the Islamic Jihad movement.
Source: Al Jazeera