[News] ‘Operational Control’? - What Newly-Released Resistance Videos Tell Us about the Gaza Battles

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‘Operational Control’? - What Newly-Released Resistance Videos Tell Us
about the Gaza Battles
January 10, 2024
------------------------------
The Palestinian Resistance is engaging the Israeli military in tough
battles in Gaza. (Photo: video, via Al-Qassam military media)

*By Palestine Chronicle Editors
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-editors>*

On Tuesday, the two main fighting Resistance forces in Gaza, Al-Qassam
Brigades and Al-Quds Brigades, released two videos.

The videos may appear just another addition to the damning evidence of the
heavy casualties sustained by invading Israeli troops in Gaza.

However, these two particular videos tell us much more about the state of
the Palestinian Resistance in the Strip and the changing tactics used by
Palestinians in the longest war ever fought by Israel in Gaza.

They also help us answer the questions, did Israel truly control northern
Gaza as Israeli military spokesman continue to claim? And how is the
fighting in Khan Yunis progressing?

*Al-Qassam Brigades Video*

The newly released video by Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the
Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, took place in the Zaytoun
neighborhood in northern Gaza.

Israel has claimed to have achieved operational control over Zaytoun many
days ago. The video, however, demonstrates that Israel has little
operational control in that area.

True, Daniel Hagari, the military spokesman for the Israeli army, has said
that, per his language, ‘terrorist attacks’ continue to be launched against
the Israeli military in the north.

But a close examination of that video shows that what has taken place in
that specific operation cannot be classified as a random attack by a small
Qassam unit, operating without centralized leadership. Why?

The timeline of the events shows complete military preparedness:

0:15 – Monitoring Israeli forces advancing towards the ambush.

0:24 – The ambush begins with the support group striking the Israeli forces.

0:32 – The escape of the remaining part of the force towards one of the
houses.

0:44 – Clashing with the special force by the execution group.

1:24 – Striking the enemy’s rescue forces by the rescue cutting group.

2:08 – (Voice over by Al-Qassam fighter) “Now, the detonation of an
explosive device on the zionist pig soldiers in a tunnel in Al-Zaytoun
neighborhood.”

Indeed, the video shows this whole process done with complete accuracy, up
to the point where a tunnel beneath that area was detonated along with the
remaining soldiers.

An operation of this nature must have involved a complicated process,
including:

   - Monitoring the Israeli military movement in that area in advance;
   - Communicating information to the various Qassam cells on the ground;
   - Coordinating and dividing the roles of the various Qassam units that
   ultimately engaged in the operation;
   - Carrying out all stages of the operation;
   - Engaging with remaining Israeli special forces, ultimately luring them
   into a tunnel;
   - Blowing up the tunnel;
   - Retreating;
   - Communicating the outcome of the operation;
   - Developing the media content;
   - Sharing the content with international media.

This, by no means, indicates that the Hamas command in Al-Zaytoun is in
tatters. To the contrary, it is Israeli ‘special forces’ who were seen
running back and forth, while increasingly being surrounded by Al-Qassam
fighters.

At one point in the video, it becomes clear that the Hamas fighters are
moving forward, in more open positions, while the Israeli soldiers go into
hiding.

And finally, the language. The fighters were communicating throughout the
video. Their voices did not seem stressed or shaky. They used code words
that only they could understand: ‘Isahb’, meaning ‘pull’, and ‘Ammin’,
meaning ‘Secure’.

In the background, you hear another voice, chanting encouraging words to
his colleagues, which indicates that the fighters must have felt safe to be
able to declare their positions so openly.

Even Israeli units that arrived to rescue the soldiers, themselves came
under the fire of the Resistance.

None of this indicates that Israel has operational control over the
Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and, by extension, over many other parts of
northern Gaza.

*Al-Quds Brigades Video*

The second video was released by Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, in the Khan Yunis area, in southern
Gaza Strip.

While the Israeli military admits that Khan Yunis is, indeed, a site for
fierce clashes between advancing Israeli soldiers and the Resistance, the
video does teach us about the degree of preparedness of the Resistance in
southern Gaza as well.

Second 14 in the video, shows an Al-Quds Brigades fighter walking slowly in
an area greatly damaged in the fighting. He is clearly being filmed by
another fighter. Later on, we discover that there is another camera that is
placed in the opposite direction of the targeted area.

Israeli soldiers begin appearing on second 37 in the video. First, a masked
Israeli soldier hiding behind a slightly opened curtain inside a
Palestinian home in the area.

A few seconds later, another Israeli soldier carefully peaks from the other
side of the curtain.

On the 50th second, a third Israeli soldier, stationed in the same
building, cautiously breaks a small hole in a wall using the barrel of his
gun.

Eventually, a Palestinian fighter takes position, aims, fires, using an
RPG-like device and blows up the building with the soldiers inside.

The Israeli army has said that it could take months for them to advance in
Khan Yunis. They are not wrong.

Indeed, a small group of fighters, being able to monitor, film from several
directions, surround the area, kill or wound the soldiers, retreat safely,
and communicate the message to the world is proof that the Khan Yunis
battles are not going very well for Israel.

*(The Palestine Chronicle)*
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