Resistance ambush in Beit Hanoun deals heavy blow to occupation forces

The spokesperson for the occupying army announced on Tuesday that five soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion were killed in a battle against Hamas fighters in northern Gaza.

He released their names as follows:

- Sergeant Meir Shimon Ammar, 20, from Jerusalem

- Sergeant Moshe Nassim Barash, 20, from Jerusalem

- Staff Sergeant (Reservist) Binyamin Assouline, 28, from Haifa, from the Northern Brigade – Gaza Division

- Sergeant Naum Aharon Musgadian, 20, from Jerusalem, a soldier in Battalion 97 – Netzah Yehuda, part of the Kfir Brigade

He added that the family of another soldier who died in the incident had been notified, and his name would be released later.

The incident occurred late Monday evening when resistance fighters detonated a bomb in an armored vehicle carrying soldiers, and then targeted a robot packed with ammunition that was being prepared in Beit Hanoun with an anti-tank missile.

Hebrew-language media reported that the ambush was well-planned. The first bomb targeted a tank, the second bomb hit the rescue team, and the third struck the second rescue team. Subsequently, a fourth bomb and light gunfire targeted all those injured in the initial attack.

According to Najwan Samri, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Palestine, the targeted soldiers belonged to the Yahalom engineering unit, which is involved in booby-trapping and demolishing Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

Following the incident, Hebrew media initially reported that some soldiers were missing, but later confirmed that their bodies had been found completely burned.

These media outlets described the incident as one of the most difficult events soldiers have experienced since the start of the war.

Israeli helicopters arrived on the scene to evacuate the wounded and opened heavy fire. Israeli media reported that some of the vehicles were burned in the fire.

However, Zionist regime media reported that the number of casualties was higher than what the army officially announced.

Hebrew-language sources reporting on the Beit Hanoun operation said it was so broad and surprising that the Israeli army activated the Hannibal Directive, to prevent any Zionist soldier from being taken captive alive by Palestinian fighters.

Some Hebrew media outlets also reported that the intensity of the first explosion in the combined operation was so powerful that its sound was heard in the city of Ashkelon.

This isn’t the first ambush of its kind, as the resistance has regularly published similar operations. But the Beit Hanoun attack stands out as one of the most complex, with layered explosives and gunfire targeting multiple rescue teams in a zone Israel claimed was “cleared.”

Political analyst Iyad Al-Qarra commented on the Beit Hanoun ambush, saying:

“The Beit Hanoun operation was not a passing incident. It sent a strategic message:

The battlefield is far from decided.

The resistance still holds surprises.

And the occupation faces a deep military and political crisis.”

Abu Ubaida: Netanyahu’s most foolish decision was keeping his troops in Gaza

Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, stated that the combined operation in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza dealt yet another blow to the reputation of the weak occupying army.

He said: “The complex Beit Hanoun operation struck at the credibility of the weak occupying army and its most criminal units in an area the occupation considered secure.”

The spokesperson added that the war of attrition being waged by resistance fighters from the north to the south of Gaza would inflict increasing losses on the enemy every day.

Abu Ubaida remarked that even if the enemy had miraculously succeeded in rescuing some of its soldiers from the inferno recently, it might fail next time and many soldiers could fall into the hands of the resistance.

He continued: “The steadfastness of our people and the courage of the resistance fighters are the only factors reshaping the equation and defining the next phase.”

He concluded by saying that the most foolish decision Netanyahu could have made was to keep his troops inside the Gaza Strip.