The Israeli army officially acknowledged that the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, managed during a "masterly ambush" Wednesday to kill three Israeli Givati brigade soldiers and to cause serious- to-moderate injuries among five others in the area of Juhor Ad-Dik in the central Gaza Strip.

Earlier Israeli sources told the Ma'an news agency that Palestinian fighters managed to infiltrate into a nearby vantage point near the Kibbutz Be'eri military post, three miles off central Gaza, from which they opened fire at eight Israeli soldiers. Two soldiers died of their wounds a short time later and a third was proclaimed dead some two hours later at the Beer Sheba's Soroka medical center.

Sources affiliated with the Qassam Brigades affirmed that its fighters opened fire extensively at a special Israeli force at Juhor Ad-Dik.

Palestinian eyewitnesses told the PIC reporter that two helicopters landed and transported the dead and wounded soldiers, while F-16 warplanes flew over the area.

In the same context, the Qassam Brigades published the details of the heroic operation carried out by its fighters east of the Zeitoun neighborhood specifically in the Juhor Ad-Dik area.

In a communiqué received by the PIC, Abu Obeida, the spokesman for the Brigades, explained that the ambush consisted of eight fighters in two groups, a group was in the front line and the other took a back position, where the first group lured the Israeli soldiers of the special force into the liberated lands towards the north to find themselves caught in a pincer.

Abu Obeida elaborated that when the second group of the Qassam fighters opened fire at the infiltrating Israeli occupation soldiers, they tried to flee southwards where the first group was waiting for them.

The spokesman added that the Qassam fighters fired three RPGs at the Israeli special force,  while the Qassam artillery unit participated in the operation and fired dozens of mortar shells to block Israeli backup and the air defence unit drove off for some time the Israel helicopters. 

The communiqué pointed out that the Qassam fighters heard clearly the Israeli soldiers crying and screaming as they were withdrawing safely from the scene without giving any Israeli soldier a chance to fire one shot at them.

The communiqué underlined that there are four options laid before any Israeli soldier entering Gaza, which are, either to fall dead, to be a prisoner, to have a permanent disability, or to go back having a mental disease, because none would return victorious in any way. 

* Source: Palestine Information Center