Al-Quds Brigades fired a salvo of missiles from northern Gaza towards Ashkelon (Reuters)
On the 133rd day of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian resistance operations against the occupation continued, and varied between launching rockets and field clashes. Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said that the brigades’ mujahideen were inflicting losses on the ranks of the Israeli occupation army. Massive and unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian people.
On the other hand, the occupation is still threatening to storm Rafah, while US President Joe Biden said that a temporary ceasefire must be reached in the Gaza Strip to remove the “hostages.”
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, said, “We bombed the city of Ashkelon and the Gaza Strip with missile attacks in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our people.”
For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades said that its fighters are engaged in fierce clashes with the Israeli occupation forces penetrating the areas of the city of Khan Yunis, south of Gaza. It confirmed the continued targeting of Israeli forces and their vehicles with “Al-Yassin 105” shells, “TBG” shells, and explosive devices.
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A word from Abu Ubaida
For his part, Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said that the losses among the Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip have become very large despite the attempt to protect and care for them.
Abu Ubaida revealed - during an exclusive speech broadcast by Al Jazeera - that the announcements and scenes broadcast by the brigades are part of what their fighters are implementing in the field, pointing out that the broadcast of some scenes is postponed for complex field and security reasons, stressing that the Qassam Brigades are not concerned with detailed refutation of the enemy’s claims and lies in the field. .
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Increasing numbers of dead and wounded among occupation soldiers (French)
Losses to the occupation
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation army announced on Friday morning that one of its soldiers was killed and another was seriously injured in battles in the Gaza Strip.
Thus, the number of officers and soldiers announced by the occupation forces has risen to 572 since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the war on Gaza on October 7th, including 241 killed since the start of the ground operation on the 27th of the same month.
In a related development, the Minister in the Israeli Military Council, Benny Gantz, threatened on Friday to continue the war on Gaza even during the holy month of Ramadan and expand it to the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, if the Israeli detainees do not return from the Gaza Strip.
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Warnings of storming Rafah
International positions continued to discourage the Israeli occupation from launching a ground attack on Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. French President Emmanuel Macron warned that an Israeli attack on Rafah would lead to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and would be a turning point in the conflict.
As for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, he stressed that any attack on Rafah would be devastating for the 1.5 million Palestinians in the city.
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The shooting attack in Kiryat Malachi resulted in the killing of two Israelis and the wounding of 4 (French)
Operation in Kiryat Malachi
Away from Gaza, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation announced that two Israelis were killed and 4 were moderately and seriously injured, following a shooting attack at a bus station, north of the city of Kiryat Malachi.
For its part, the Hamas movement said, "The commando operation in Kiryat Malachi is a natural response to the war of genocide committed by the occupation army against the Palestinian people, and the continuation of its crimes and the crimes of terrorist settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem."
On the other hand, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced on Friday his intention to expand the policy of allowing Israelis to arm themselves.
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Nasrallah: If America stops supplying weapons to Israel, the war on Gaza will stop immediately pic.twitter.com/YV8lidQ5VR
- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) February 16, 2024
Nasrallah threatens
On the Lebanese level, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel to pay the price for the blood of Lebanese civilians that it shed by targeting the cities of Nabatieh and Al-Sowanah in southern Lebanon the day before yesterday, Wednesday. He also threatened to bomb Eilat, southern Israel, in response to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s threat to attack Beirut.
He stressed that Israel will pay the price in blood, not in military equipment and spy devices, adding that the occupation army's targeting of civilians in southern Lebanon is a development that must stop.
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Mutual bombing
At the field level, Hezbollah announced that it bombed the Israeli military site Al-Malikiyah with a Burkan missile, and the Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms with missile weapons, causing direct hits.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese News Agency reported that Israeli aircraft bombed the outskirts of the towns of Aita al-Shaab, Barkat Bint Jbeil, Yater, and Beit Lev. The Israeli army also fired heavy machine-gun shells from the Metulla settlement towards the neighborhoods of the town of Kafr Kila, adjacent to the colony’s borders.
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Source: Al Jazeera + agencies