KHAN YOUNIS (PIC)– Fighters of the armed wing of Hamas Movement the Qassam Brigades (QB) have repelled Wednesday large numbers of IOF troops attempting to advance into the Faraheen area east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killing one IOF soldier.
The group however acknowledged that one of its fighters identified as Hazem Jamal Asfour 21 was martyred and another was wounded while blocking the IOF incursion into the area.
News from the battlefield confirmed that a number of Israeli soldiers were wounded with bullets of the Palestinian fighters but IOF troops acknowledged the death of one of its servicemen in the armed clashes with the Palestinian fighters.
Earlier the QB issued a military communiqué confirming that its fighters had successfully unleashed five homemade mortar shells at a group of IOF troops in the area.
The armed Palestinian group furthermore confirmed that its fighters fired two locally-manufactured Al-Yassin projectiles were fired at the IOF armored vehicles advancing into the area. This was followed by the arrival of a number of army vehicles probably to evacuate wounded and dead soldiers. An Israeli helicopter was also seen landing and swiftly taking off in the area indicating that some of the cases were serious.
Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses in the area described the armed clashes between the invading IOF troops and the Palestinian resistance fighters defending the area as “fierce” as the two sides were directly engaging each other from close distance.
Three other Palestinian resistance fighters affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Movement were also wounded in earlier clashes with large numbers with IOF troops in the same area Palestinian medical sources confirmed.
Prior to the clashes Israeli occupation soldiers occupied a number of Palestinian homes in the Faraheen area and turned them into military posts before Palestinian resistance fighters attacked them local inhabitants in the area confirmed.
They also added that more IOF tanks and bulldozers were called into the area and started bulldozing wide areas of Palestinian farmland and ransacking a number of Palestinian homes.
Around 15 Palestinian citizens were kidnapped at the hands of the invading troops and they were subjected to interrogation before the withdrawing troops used them as human shields and transported them to areas inside the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands the eyewitnesses furthermore asserted.
