Official: Rafah Ambush Demonstrates That Weakening Hamas Is Merely an “Israeli” Illusion

By Staff, Agencies

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 Hamas fighters killed eight "Israeli" soldiers in Rafah’s Tal As-Sultan neighborhood. The operation involved firing rocket-propelled grenades [RPGs] at "Israeli" military vehicles, followed by an ambush of a support force deployed to the scene.

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

The operation 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.

The apartheid “Israeli” entity unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in retaliation for the latter’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 causing the martyrdom of at least 37,337 Palestinians, mostly women and children as well as injuring 85,299 others.