ALBAWABA - Exclusive video obtained by Al Jazeera shows the armed branch of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, fighting fiercely against Israeli soldiers in the eastern section of Rafah, in southern Gaza. The video shows the instant a "Yassin 105" anti-tank missile struck an Israeli "Namer" armored personnel carrier, causing a direct hit.
In addition, a "D9" military bulldozer is targeted in the video. After a 24-hour standoff, one of Al-Qassam's members set the bulldozer on fire. "This is Rafah," a field operator from Al-Qassam said, underscoring the Israeli army's failure to retrieve their vehicles from the ambush location. "You will drown in Rafah’s sands," he threatened Israeli soldiers, and he devoted the operation to the Houthis and the "Axis of Resistance."
This occurs barely one day after Al-Qassam's attack claimed the lives of four Israeli troops and wounded five more. The troops, including a military doctor, were instantaneously killed by the group's strong explosive device, which they had fitted inside a structure.
According to Israeli Army Radio, the structure was one of several that Hamas had set up with explosives; they said that over 14,000 buildings in Rafah alone had been set up with booby traps.
Al-Qassam claimed credit for a similar operation earlier in September in the Al-Jineina area, when anti-tank missiles were fired against an armored personnel carrier and a D9 bulldozer. There were casualties as a consequence of an assault on the responding rescue crew.
After four months of warfare, the Israeli military said last week that it had destroyed major tunnel networks and killed over 2,000 Hamas members from the Rafah Brigade of Al-Qassam. In spite of this, Al-Qassam Brigades keep releasing videos showing their successful ambushes, which have cost Israel a great deal in terms of soldiers and military hardware.
