Inside Qassam Brigades’ “Gates of Hell” ambushes, with Jon Elmer

You are watching and listening to the electronic inifatada. I am John Elmer. This is the resistance report for day 587 of the genocide. Is also day 75 of the total siege on the Gaza Strip. No food, no medicine. If you didn't catch Nora's uh news report off the top of the show, I highly recommend that as uh excellent coverage of an absolutely disgusting and devastating uh situation that the people of Gaza are living through right now. Um, a couple big stories this week were the release. Uh, Cassam brigades released an American soldier, an Israeli soldier who is an American who is a lone soldier who was captured from his base uh in his in his tank with u uh other soldiers uh on the Gaza border on the northeast uh edge of the Gaza envelope. Um and Casam released him this week in a good faith gesture to attempt to get the Americans um to uh engage in negotiations to open the crossings. They understood that those crossings would be opened um based on the release of that soldier. It was unprecedented and historic release um for no uh no prisoner exchange. Um, and I think that we uh are seeing right now that the that that good faith gesture has uh been essentially ignored by the Americans. Um, they're duplicitous and criminal uh in this and they're responsible for it in many critical ways. An article in Harats this week talked about how uh US funding has covered 70% of Israel's war related spending. And as we know, I reported a number of times uh late last year that the first year of the war alone uh the United States gave roughly $23 billion uh to the Israelis. And in Harets this week, uh a foreign service, a foreign ministry official, Israeli foreign ministry official said, uh if the US chose to brandish the whip and tie aid to political demands, it would be very hard for us to resist. That's the problem with our dependency. At the moment of truth, the American president can simply say, "Stop the war." Period. And that's uh what Casam was uh hoping for in uh their attempt to alleviate the suffering um mass starvation and famine in Gaza. Um and that soldier was a soldier from the Golani Brigades um 51st Battalion. and the Golani Brigade 51st Battalion is who are uh in these operations that I'm going to be showing you uh throughout this show. So uh it's worth noting that. So let's look at the maps. As always, we got these maps updated again. Uh the the the noose is tightening around um uh the civilian populations as is the intention of the Israelis. We're now at 70% uh no go buffer zone. Again, the purple is the buffer zone. The orange is the evacuation displacement orders, the ethnic cleansing orders, the eraser orders in this case because we're particularly talking about southern Gaza. If we look at that map to zoom in on the south, we can see that um Rafa has been uh uh completely um that the population has been pushed out of Rafa completely. Um and I have been talking uh recently about the Morag corridor. that is the corridor that runs between Rafa and Conunis. So I just wanted to show you with this next map. This map is from 2003. Um and just to show you that this is uh the situation as of October 24th, 2003. And this is when I was reporting in Rafa on this siege. And you can see the way that the Morag corridor is marked on this map. It is the red lines um that marks through. what's called a security zone during the uh Israeli occupation when the settlers were inside Gaza. Um and you can see that that that um corridor was devoid of people uh all along the purple on the coast that's Gushkatif that was an Israeli settlement and that area um just between just off Kunis is Moasi and that's where the civilian population in Gaza has been coralled. And so these military operations are following um a historic uh understanding an order um and they're moving through areas that have already been long ago um established as corridors um and you can see the b the Egypt buffer zone there on the map to the left that is the Philadelphia corridor um that has been expanded and of course we know about the netarim corridor in uh that's divides northern Gaza around Wadi Gaza. Um, so these are already established uh routes and I just wanted to bring this map in because I know I've been talking about that for a number of weeks now about the Morag corridor and saying it's not a military accomplishment to take the Morag corridor um because this corridor has existed in this way. Um uh this is how Israel controlled the territory from 1967 uh until 2005 when they left. So the focus of the fighting is again it's on the Golani brigade 51st battalion and it's the Rafa brigade still fighting. The Rafa brigade that we were told in the summer uh had been defeated by Israel. We know that they lie about those declarations uh going back to November 2023 when they said they had operational control over Bethanoon. Uh Beth Hanoon is still fighting. The Rafa Brigade has four battalions in the Rafa Brigade. And this is uh this show is going to focus on the Eastern Battalion. Um and you can still see the area um that they're going to be fighting on this map where you see Sahadin uh Street Road, the main highway that runs north south through Gaza um up into the Mor corridor because the way the use of the Mor corridor is to allow Israeli troops to a to access the center of the territory. um and then jump off from that which is what they do from the Philadelphia corridor. We know they do that in Telles Sultan in western Rafa. Uh that's where Yaha Sinoir was killed uh fighting uh in uh in Telesultan. And so in the Morag corridor brings uh Israeli troops into the center u of eastern Rafa and that is what we are going to focus on today. Um these operations Casam named them uh the gates of hell and we'll remember that that's also uh comes from Trump. Um Trump said that the if the captives were not released that um that they would bring the gates of hell down on Gaza and the resistance has used these um Israeli and American terms for the fight and has turned them on their head like uh iron swords uh became the breaking the swords ambush and this is the gates of hell uh operation. Um, so what we're going to be seeing in this first one is these are complex ambushes. Uh, well executed, tactically executed. Um, this is a tunnel-born operation. Um, all three of these operations are going to be based on tunnel um, on tunnel operations and they're targeting the Yahalom unit which is Israel's uh, tunnel anti-tunnel unit. They are auxiliary to the right now in Rafa, auxiliary to the Golani Brigade's 51st Battalion. Um, and so we're going to be watching uh the Israelis advance from the Morag corridor. Um, and they're going to engage in a firefight with uh with the Palestinian resistance is going to engage the Casam is going to engage them in a firefight and lure them into the building to um to target them from a detonated uh tunnel booby trap. So, let's take a look at number four, the first one, Gates of Hell, uh part one. You can see the on the screen, Gates of Hell. We have a commander here with the sign behind him that says Gates of Hell. He says, "The leadership of Alkasam issued the following order to launch Gates of Hell series of operations. We assure you that Rafa, after a year of fighting this battle that we are still dispelling your illusions and taking the lives of your soldiers, let the gates of hell open wide. Let every home and every alley in Rafa become a ticking bomb that claims the lives of your best soldiers." That's what this commander is saying on screen here. And now we're going to see uh the again drone footage. We've seen this all throughout the war. Um, and you can see the Morag corridor line there, and that is the line of advance um that the Israelis are going to take. The commander says, "After studying the enemy's movements and behavior and advances in southern from the uh Morag corridor, the location of the ambush has been selected and identified. Um, the leadership has confirmed the selection of targets and the direction to eliminate them. In the next video, you're going to see uh a team of Kasam fighters lift off a mattress here um and emerge from the tunnels. We're seeing this from a GoPro camera on their head. We're also going to see a camera in the room, but here's the fighters emerging. And this is the thing that we've seen all throughout this war. There's the backup camera um that shows the fighters uh in the room, but they've given us this front row seat to the resistance. Um and these these operations are really going to show you that. Um because you can see this is the GoPro camera on the helmet uh or on the head um of one of the fighters and that shows you the fighter the whole squad emerging from the room which um you could see um on the next image uh as well. Um the next uh the next video yeah that's them emerging and again you can see the way that the backup camera the car backup camera has been uh used in these operations. Again, we've seen this all throughout the war. Ingenuity here and in the destroyed building. You can see the rubble around this building. The Israelis believe this building has been cleared. Um they have set up a a position next to this building uh and the fighters emerge from um emerge from the tunnels and are able to execute these operations. So, if we watch this next uh slide here, you're going to see the fighters move to the door uh and hit an Israeli patrol that's walking by. All through this uh video, you can hear the screams of the soldiers as they're getting fired upon. You can watch these uncensored videos um on my Twitter account, which is just my name uh at Twitter. Maybe tomorrow I can throw that up on the Tiker at some point. But uh yeah, they're screaming all through this and then they slide back down into the tunnel. So you see the fighter sliding down in the tunnel. Um there's both the cameras, one on the head and one in the room. Um as the fighter disappears, this next uh slide shows you um them firing out the door um at the Israeli patrol. So they're luring the Israelis into this position into this into this house. And you can see in the next slide um them exiting down the tunnel um firing at the last uh for good measure. And this is the same. And so you're seeing the helmet, you're seeing the GoPro camera on the head of the fighter, and then you're seeing the uh the in-house camera, um, which is going to be key to this next one because the Israelis will then send in a drone and their canine units um that will arrive as a platoon. And I have uh pixel masked the Israeli soldiers because um we have to follow community guidelines uh on YouTube and we do that uh very faithfully. um even though uh we don't think that they're justified can because we've uh as everybody knows we've been watching a live stream genocide where it's fine to kill Palestinians um regularly on our phones and on our um uh and various forms of media but uh they're very sensitive to the Israeli soldiers. So let's take a look at this uh this next slide the next video. So you can see the drone. This is their Abadas drone. This is uh they're come in and case with these drones. This is one of the major uh innovations of this war for the Israelis that they use these drones to case uh buildings. Um and they use them all the time. So they send them in, they don't have to send their fighters in. You can see the K9 looking around in here. He's got a camera on his back. And like I said, we have to edit this out, but uh in the original video, these guys walk into the room one after another. Um and then Kasam detonates. Uh, as you can see there, destroying the camera, a successful operation that killed two Yahalom soldiers and wounded four others. Um, and you can see the OKAT's K-9 uh units. This is u the K-9 units, according to the Israelis, have lost 45 of these working dogs in the uh in the battle in Gaza. He's got a camera and a radio on the dog and they can communicate with uh with their handlers. And so the dog apparently doesn't find anything in this room. So the soldiers come in one after another. Um and then the uh Casam detonates the tunnel booby trap and uh successful operation gates of hell part five. Um and this continues. This operation continues. The fighter says uh at this point here, we've hit you in one place and now we're coming for you in another. The fighters withdraw down into the tunnel um and then move across the street and and move to the reinforcements that come after the detonation of the house. The Israelis send uh reinforcements. You can see a Merkova tank here um coming and they Kasam has now crossed the street and are on the other side. So they this is the way the tunnels are used for 360°ree uh coverage. The Israelis believe they're in front of them. And you see uh uh an elevated Yasine 105 strike built anti-tank weapon built in Gaza as I always point out. Um and no active protection on that one. We are seeing now a D9 bulldozer coming in to help uh extract and he's going to be hit as well. So detailed complex ambush well planned uh well executed uh by the Rafa brigade um who the Israelis keep telling us are defeated and keep sending us these uh series of operations that are remarkable and uh people who have been following our show for the last year and a half known the Rafa brigade have carried out these ambushes consistently for the entire year. The battle in Rafa began on May 7th um of last year. So they've been fighting for more than a year. Um we can see this next slide is the is the tank uh the tank being hit by the Yasine uh that we just saw. And the scene ends with the commander saying and finally our message to our people and to the free people across the Gaza Strip and especially to the people of Rafa of steadfastness. Today the branch in the tree stands before its deeply rooted origin declaring we promise and pledge we will remain here on our land defending you and defending our homeland. Uh so message from Casam uh from Gates of Hell operation number one. There's going to be three of these operations that we're going to watch today. Um the next one is Casam. Uh again the IDF will advance through the Morhead corridor as we see the setup here. Um and they're going to be hit uh from the warehouse that you can see. Again, they're marking the Morag corridor and the orange line is uh the way they advanced from that corridor into those two buildings. Um we've edited out the soldiers who are walking to take up this position. They've got mattresses on their heads. they're uh walking in to hold this position next to the warehouse. Um you can see the number of them they number according to the field report um there's a dozen at least in this uh one position um advancing from the Bor corridor which allows them to do that. So the corridor is useful in that purpose but taking the corridor was not a military accomplishment uh for the Israelis. Uh if we look at the next slide, we can see um we can see the Yasines here. This is the building that the Israelis have set up in. And now we're going to see the Casam archers with their thermmoaric tandem warhead uh uh Yasines. They're going to move through this already bombed and destroyed warehouse uh right up and and attack that position um that Israeli position in the building. Uh the audio track on this um that you can watch on Twitter is all gunfire. Um they're all emptying their clips. Uh all the shooters. There's a a platoon of uh Kasam fighters here all emptying. You can see the bullets hitting off the the concrete. And then this is an F7. This is a fragmentation warhead. So it's an anti-personnel warhead um that we've seen all throughout the war. Again, they're using appropriate weapons. They're using the same weapons that they would be using if this operation was on the first day of the war. Um, so they fire on this building and then they're going to move back to the tunnel um and go back down into the tunnel, luring the uh Israelis into this warehouse in the same way that they lured them into Gates of Hell part one. Uh this is Gates of Hell part two. Um and this operation was on May the 7th. Um so we can look at the next slide and you'll see the same thing as the last one. The drone comes in. These are these Avadas drones with the propeller guards um that work inside buildings. And you're going to see the canine, two canine come in here. And you can see they don't seem to be able to smell the explosives that are um set up for the Israelis. And um I think that this is probably a product of the Israelis um having so heavily bombed these areas that the dogs aren't able to distinguish between um the uh explosive residues from the Israeli weapons and from the Palestinians. You can see the way they run out like that. They're not uh they don't usually do that. Um, in any case, we watch nine soldiers enter into this particular uh ambush site uh before they are again detonated by Casam. The camera itself is destroyed. Uh, showing you uh here the medevac helicopter. Uh, the Israelis admitted two more killed in this. There was nine killed and 50 wounded in this series of operations. Um uh so if we uh I'm one page behind here, but um yeah, so we're going to go to number three here. Again, we're going to set up we get drone footage. You can see that destroyed Rafa. More than 80% of Rafa's buildings were destroyed uh at the end of 2014. So before this ceasefire uh before this part of the war. Um, again, we have to edit this out, but the Kasam has surveillance within spitting distance uh of these Israeli soldiers in this position. Um, they also have closed circuit television cameras on them. Uh, we have seen Kasam use these cameras. The cameras are set up in the rubble. Um, the fighters are moving through the rubble. The tunnels are in the rubble. Um, and they're able to carry out these operations. These operations happen because the Israelis for the first time are moving out of the buffer zone and into the builtup areas. Something I've been telling you about for weeks um when people said why weren't there operations and it's because the Israelis weren't moving out of the buffer zone. Here we see a builtup area and they're immediately getting hit. Um so that was hit with an F7 again. That's the fragmentation warhead. You can see the building uh burn uh with that first shot. And then there's going to be two more RPG shots. You just saw one and there's the second one. Uh anti-tank weapon and we're he's showing us that from his um from his GoPro on his head, but also we're seeing the same building being hit uh by the closed circuit uh TV camera. So just remarkable detail in these operations um on top of the um effectiveness of the operation. You can see the building is burning and the uh the Kasam fighters themselves are talking about how this is burning which you can again watch on uh the uncensored version of it. Uh two more soldiers at least were killed in this operation. This is the first part of operation uh gates of hell. Uh this was part one. Part two this is an alor rafa also an eastern rafa. So it's still the uh rafa brigade. We're seeing um eastern Rafa battalion of the Rafa brigade. Um you can see the soldiers moving into position. The Casam fighters have eyes on them. Um and this uh this uh when when this Kasam fighter detonates uh this he says that um uh he says that uh and the Rafa brigade will remain a hell for invaders as he presses the button. Uh detonating the IED. It's an anti-personnel IED. So, we know these to be television or radia uh IEDs. This is the Israeli armored uh reinforcements coming. I had to edit out the soldiers on the side of the road, but they go down uh clearly seen these operations are successful and the Israelis have to admit to these operations because there's multiple medevac helicopters for each of these. So, all for the last two weeks in Rafa, there's been reports of medevac helicopters landing constantly. Um and that's what we're seeing here. The original field report of this operation talked about seven soldiers being in that position. Um, and again you can see the detonation of that uh filling the the uh the view of the closed circuit uh TV camera. So these are all operations against the Golani brigades uh 51st battalion which is um the same uh battalion that the soldier was uh the lone soldier prisoner of war uh was released from uh by Kasam just this week um as well uh which we will see after this uh Kasam's handover was not like the previous handovers um of captured soldiers Um they just did it with a single photograph. Um and here you can see Kasam shadow unit. We've seen the shadow unit. This is in Kunis. He was handed over. So the soldier was captured in northeast Gaza across from Beth Hanoon. Um and he was released in Conunus. Um and we usually see these fighters, these Kasam shadow unit fighters uh holding Tavore Israeli uh weapons, Israeli made weapons that were captured in battle. Um, we watched uh I showed you a video several months ago of an operation from the 2014 war where Kasam came out from a tunnel at Nahul Oz and captured one of the X95s, the bullpup rifles from uh the Israeli soldiers, but we saw many more of them in the Rafa and Conun handovers um where we saw captured weapons. And here Kasam is holding a foreign weapon, a sty uh AUG. Uh the AUG known better just as the AUG. It's also a bullpup rifle, which is showing that they're getting these weapons. Um they probably got these weapons a decade ago through the tunnels. So um this war has shown us that Kasam uh has used its uh indigenously built weapons but we have seen uh moments throughout the war where the tunnels um have played a key role in building up the army over the last uh two decades. So this is the handover of that soldier and it caught people's attention because the Israelis are constantly watching these details. It's the only time they actually watch what's going on in Gaza. Uh so Kasam is uh readily uh giving these uh intentionally sending these messages to uh the Israelis. So um that's southern Gaza. And I just wanted to show you the map uh in northern Gaza because uh it has tightened well as well in northern Gaza. Um and there was a number of operations this week in northern Gaza particularly in Shuaya uh east of Gaza City. Uh uh Shuaya is uh synonymous with resistance and as soon as the Israelis moved out of the buffer zone and into Shajaya, they were hit. They were hit with half a dozen ambushes this week. Um more than 20 soldiers were injured in these operations. We're not quite sure if the Israelis are still being honest about their uh casualties um at this point, but the field reports matched um the field reports by the Israeli military matched the field reports for Kasam in these operations. Um there was uh a number of these ambushes that were taken uh in northern uh Gaza as well. Sariah aluds carried out a couple operations um in uh Shijaya. Uh they also fired rockets from Jabalia. Um and uh the Cassam Brigades uh Bay Hanoon battalion carried out um a number of operations, three operations against the Israelis in the northeast corner uh in the buffer zone um as well this week. Just uh to to put a final note on this, I want to show you this uh graph from the economist who uh along with the Lancet uh did a study on the casualty counts in Gaza, which anyone who's been watching this war knows that these casualty counts have been low. Um the complete hospital the hospital system has been completely destroyed. the me the systems for uh finding people in the rubble like civil defense. Uh they don't have heavy diggers to get people out of the rubble. People are moving so often, displaced so often that it's difficult to to know exactly who's in any given house and now who's in any given tent because now the Israeli massacres um more than 200 civilians killed in the last two days, many of them are in tents. Um that's who they're hitting right now. And I just wanted to put a note on this because um our sense of scale has been just so uh blown out of uh blown blown away in this uh the scale of this genocide. And I just want to say that since the ceasefire collapsed on March the 18th uh officially collapsed with Israel's massacre uh on March 18th, more people more people in Gaza have died than died in the entire 2014 war. More than died in cast le in 2008 2009 more than died during the second inifada in Gaza. Um that's just since March 18th. So more have died since the in any given time period of war uh since the occupation of Gaza in 1967 just since May 18th. So I just wanted to put a point on that uh to end the note on that on the operation uh gates of hell uh ambushes. Uh there still may be more. There was two other uh gates of hell ambushes in the field reports that we may see coming up. But uh those three uh operations show you that the Rafa brigade is still ready to fight. Um and each of the territorial um brigades are all in the same position. Once the Israelis push into those areas, they will be met with resistance. Um the Israelis have promised that they are going to move into um these areas. They intend to start the war back up once Trump uh returns from his um gaudy trip to um uh to the to the Arab to the Slovenly Arab governments that are uh part of his grift. Um and if that uh is the case, we're going to see uh much more resistance uh in the coming days. So that is the resistance report for day 587 of this war. [Music]