News / Palestine

Rafah deadly ambush proved weakening Hamas is just Israel’s illusion: Official

Monday, 17 June 2024 7:51 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 17 June 2024 7:51 AM ]

Mourners wearing t-shirts bearing the portrait of Wasim Mahmud, one of eight Israeli soldiers killed in an ambush by Hamas fighters in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, surround his casket during his funeral in Beit Jann in the occupied territories on June 16, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

A high-ranking Hamas official says the recent operation by the Palestinian resistance movement against the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah proved the regime is delusional for thinking that it can weaken the group.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on Sunday that a day after Hamas fighters killed eight Israeli soldiers after firing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at their military vehicles in Rafah’s Tal as-Sultan neighborhood, and then ambushing a support force deployed to the scene.

The operation “is a strong message to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Zionist regime, that the weakening of the resistance is just an illusion,” he told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.

The attack marked one of the deadliest days for the Israeli military in the besieged Gaza, where it is waging a genocidal war against Palestinians.

Netanyahu expressed his “deep mourning” for the incident, but insisted that “despite the heavy and staggering cost, we must stick to the goals of the war.”

The Hamas official said that Netanyahu has failed to eliminate the resistance in Gaza and that he will face defeats in all his efforts to do so.

“The resistance continues to defend the right of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip in the face of the genocide that Netanyahu insists on,” he added.

The facts on the ground demonstrate that the Palestinians in Gaza can remain resilient, Abu Zuhri emphasized.

Eight Israeli troops killed in blast in southern Gaza

Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in a blast in the southern city of Rafah, amid the occupying regime’s ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 after Hamas carried out a surprise operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

However, more than eight months into the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives held in Gaza despite killing at least 37,337 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 85,299 others.

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