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The Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – announced on Friday the targeting of Tel Aviv and gatherings of Israeli forces in various axes of the Gaza Strip, and confirmed the death of an Israeli soldier whom the occupation forces tried to recover, while Israel continued its violent raids on the Strip, leaving more than 300 martyrs.

The Qassam Brigades announced the targeting of Tel Aviv and the Miftahim gathering with a number of rockets in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians, and explained that the shelling also targeted the settlement of Sderot in the Gaza envelope with the short-range rocket system "Rajom" of 114 mm.

Sirens sounded in the greater Tel Aviv area as well as in Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee, and Israeli police announced that they were combing areas of the city for fragments of rocket interceptors, as they put it.

Al-Qassam Brigades confirmed that its resistance targeted an Israeli force stationed inside the Ibn Uthaymeen school, northeast of the city of Khan Yunis, with a "TPG" anti-fortification shell, and clashed with them from scratch and killed and wounded.

The battalions also announced that a gathering of Israeli forces east of Tel al-Za'atar, northeast and east of Khan Yunis was targeted with mortar shells.

A field source in the Qassam Brigades announced the failure of the occupation attempt to storm the depth of Jabalia camp and destroy a large number of its vehicles at the outskirts of the camp, in addition to targeting a gathering of the occupation forces in the axis south of Gaza City with a short-range rocket-propelled missile system.

Occupation losses

The Qassam Brigades said it thwarted an Israeli attempt to reach an Israeli soldier in its custody this morning, adding that it discovered and clashed with the attacking force, killing captured soldier Sa'ar Baruch, 25.

Al-Qassam explained that Israeli warplanes intervened and bombed the place with a series of raids to cover up the withdrawal of the attacking force.

In contrast, the Israeli army announced that a major and a soldier – one in the 53rd Armored Battalion and the other a tank commander from the same battalion – were killed in fierce battles north of Gaza, while a third soldier was wounded in what was described as very serious.

This brings the number of Israeli soldiers and officers killed since the collapse of the truce last week to 25, while the total since the start of the ground operation stands at 97, bringing the total number of army deaths since October 7 to 421.

Israeli raids

On Friday, the Israeli army continued its intensive raids across the Strip, announcing that it had "struck 450 targets" in Gaza in land, air and sea operations, resulting in many martyrs and injuries.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said that hospitals received during the past hours 313 martyrs and 558 injured, and explained that a large number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement that the total toll since the start of the Israeli aggression has risen to 17,487 martyrs and 46,480 injured, pointing out that 70% of the victims are women and children.

The Israeli occupying forces' air raids and heavy artillery shelling targeted various areas in the north, centre and south of the Gaza Strip. In the north, the occupation intensified its bombardment and launched heavy air strikes targeting Beit Hanoun and shelling with firebombs shelters in the Jabalia refugee camp, resulting in injuries.

In the central Gaza Strip, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that there were martyrs and injuries in Israeli shelling that targeted homes in the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps and in Deir al-Balah.

In the south, artillery shelling continued on many areas in Khan Yunis, resulting in many martyrs, as the occupation warplanes targeted civilian homes and a school housing displaced persons east of the city. Heavy airstrikes also targeted the vicinity of the European Gaza Hospital.

Targeting mosques

On Friday, Israeli air strikes targeted a mosque in the Abasan area, east of Khan Yunis, which resulted in its complete destruction, and Israeli occupation warplanes destroyed at dawn today the Jaffa Mosque in Deir al-Balah.

The Israeli warplanes destroyed large parts of the historic Al-Omari Mosque in the Old City of Gaza City. Al-Omari Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Gaza City and the world, with a total area of about 4100,<> square meters, with its campus and external spaces.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) described the Israeli army's bombing of the Omari mosque as "a barbaric and heinous crime that shows the extent to which this artificial entity, which lacks any historical roots, holds a hidden hatred for human civilization."

Hamas added in a statement that the Israeli aggression on Gaza has caused the destruction of 104 mosques so far, and 3 historic churches.

Source : Al Jazeera + Agencies