By Jomaa Younis and Mohammad Sio
ISTANBUL (AA) - The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced Tuesday evening that its fighters carried out a series of coordinated operations against Israeli forces in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killing and wounding several soldiers over the past few days.
In a video published on its Telegram channel, the Al-Qassam Brigades said the attacks were conducted in recent days in coordination with the al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement, as part of what it called the “David's Stones” series of operations.
The operations included four attacks, the most prominent of which was a joint sniper operation on June 18 in the al-Sanati area of eastern Khan Younis, it said, adding that the sniper killed a first sergeant in the Israeli military's engineering unit.
The footage showed a Hamas fighter firing a single shot at an Israeli soldier, who immediately collapsed.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also reported another sniper attack on June 11 in the same area, which it said moderately wounded two Israeli soldiers.
One more attack, carried out on June 16, targeted an Israeli armored personnel carrier in eastern Khan Younis, resulting in casualties among the soldiers onboard, the group said.
Footage showed a fighter planting an explosive device beneath the carrier, which detonated with a loud blast. Flames engulfed the vehicle moments later.
In another operation on June 15, the Al-Qassam Brigades said it fired a TBG anti-armor missile and another projectile at a building sheltering 11 Israeli soldiers, killing and injuring several of them.
The Israeli military has not responded to the Al-Qassam statement.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 56,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.