Shujaiya fighters conduct ambushes of invading Israeli forces, with Jon Elmer

Um, so let's uh let's move up uh to the north because uh last week the Israeli military invaded Shuja'iyya. Shuja'iyya is just east of Gaza City. It is a uh the it is the home of the strongest Qassam Brigades fighting formation. It is a place that uh has seen uh the history of the armed struggle um has taken place in Shuja'iyya. If you follow the trajectory of Shuja'iyya, you're looking at the trajectory of the armed struggle um in Gaza. And so the ID the IDF said that they um that they hadn't operated in the areas of Shuja'iyya that they are operating now. So again, we had them in December saying that they had cleared Shuja'iyya, which we said at the time was a joke. Um, but now they're going back and saying that they're fighting in areas that they didn't fight before in December. So they're contradicting their own propaganda from the time. Um, and this is something this Shuja'iyya raid caught everyone by surprise. And this is part of Israel's uh corridor and raid strategy that is such a wild card because um they had the division, the 98th division, that was operating in Jabalia camp uh a month ago. We remember the uh four-week five-week operation in Jabalia camp that nobody expected either. Um, and so they have this 98th division that is now moving and roving um and hitting these various places with uh completely unexpected. So when they went into um Shuja'iyya, they wrote they dropped they they massacred a family and they dropped leaflets saying to flee Shuja'iyya. The UN said 80,000 people fled in the first hours. Um, and people like literally with the clothes on their back uh out in the streets fleeing. Um, but what it set up was uh a a significant battle fighting against the strongest Qassam formation. You know, like the Jabalia formation might be like, "Hey." But we're talking about, you know, among the strongest um Qassam formations. Um and as soon as they went in to Shuja'iyya, they were hit. So, let's look at number 12. Um in this video, you can also see this video um on my Twitter. It's got an excellent soundtrack to this one. But we cut the audio to try to keep these videos online, but you can check it out on my Twitter feed if you want to see cuz they're just so well put together the media ops. We're looking at a camera here showing a command where the camera's being positioned to show the commander uh who's watching the operation uh commanding the operation, command and control. So, even Saraya al-Quds is flexing this constantly. They do it every week showing their fighters planning these operations. Um and this is going to be another return to sender operation. This is um an engineering unit of Saraya al-Quds um operating to booby trap a house and a tunnel entrance. Um and that what they're showing you there is a 2,000-lb bomb, a Mark 84 bomb, 2,000 lbs, 1,000 lbs of explosive of high explosives um that are in there and and Saraya al-Quds has done this a number of times throughout the war, even even more than Qassam has. Um so far rewired up these uh unexploded bombs and used them. Here we see he's going to lift this pillow here and you're going to see um their EFP, which is their Shuwa. Uh Saraya al-Quds Shuwa, they call it a thunder. But you could see it's an EFP, an explosively formed penetrator. And here we're seeing Israeli mines again being used. So, Israeli mines and Israeli bombs being used to prepare an ambush um for the Israeli military entering Shuja'iyya. And immediately when they enter Shuja'iyya, um they're hit by this operation. Um using Israeli weapons uh against them uh to devastating effect. And we've seen this before. We saw it in Zeitoun uh to devastating effect. You could see it just blows out the entire building um that that troop position is in. And the Israelis claimed four uh killed in the first like 36 hours of the Shuja'iyya invasion. Um they don't they don't say where and and they don't usually say how. Uh and that's the case here. But we're seeing a position that Saraya al-Quds is monitoring from a camera back to a commander um and using their engineering units to rewire um these weapons. And the um the Mark 84 is uh has 450 kilos of high explosives in uh in that bomb. It's a 4-m long uh bomb. Let's let's go to number 14 here tomorrow cuz it I want to This one is remarkable, too. So, these are Saraya These are uh Qassam fighters here sitting on a swing. Until now, we're waiting for the enemy. The other guy says, "Blessed is Shuja'iyya for what it has spawned. We're stationed here. We have set up a tight ambush. We are the men of Commander Ahmed Jabari. And we are sitting here. Blessed is Shuja'iyya for what it it for what it has spawned." And that's what he's talking about. He's talking about the history of the armed struggle. Um and this is an ambush on uh an Israeli position in a building with a thermobaric warhead that is built by Qassam. Um they hit it. They are clearly the uh Qassam thermobaric warhead is a tandem charge um which most of the uh RPG-7s are not. The thermobaric warhead is a single uh charge, and this is So, this is a a distinctly Qassam weapon. The first charge punches a hole in the wall, which you literally see right there before you. Uh punches a hole in the wall, and then the thermobaric fuel-air explosion follows through the hole that's been punched uh in the wall. So, let's watch it Yeah, let's watch it one more time because the this is a just incredible the dialogue. We're just sitting here waiting for the enemy, they say, as they're like sitting on a swing cleaning their guns. Um and they talk about uh being men of Commander Ahmed Jabari. Ahmed Jabari is like he's the he's one of the if not the most key commander um in the Qassam Brigades professionalization, creating structure, creating the military industry for weapons, um creating the rocket program, just the a very important uh Qassam leader. He was assassinated in 2012. Um but the fighters are here citing him because of his significant role, and he's from Shuja'iyya. Um so, we just have another example of the fighters shouting out there uh shouting out their leaders. Um and Shuja'iyya's uh remarkable. The There was a prison break in 1986 um just before the first Intifada began, Islamic Jihad fighters uh broke out of prison um and went and fought in Shuja'iyya, and that uh armed battle um was the precursor to the first Intifada. It was that fight in Shuja'iyya that led to um the beginning of the first Intifada. Um and the armed struggle trajectory has followed that um Imad Akel, who is a was the first Qassam uh fighter commander fighter commander, um he fought and was ca- was killed ultimately after being on the run for months, um killing Israeli soldiers in Gaza and police officers in Gaza. And so he is a very symbolic figure within the Qassam movement as well that's linked to Shuja'iyya. And of course Shuja'iyya is the place where the 2014 invasion, the ground invasion during the 2014 war began in Shuja'iyya and lasted for like almost literally lasted for minutes. Their first convoy of troop carriers that entered were hit in a 360° ambush by tunnels, by elevated fighters. 13 soldiers were killed. The Israelis believed many were captured. One was captured and he's still held by Qassam or his body is still held by Qassam. It's not clear if he's alive or not. So Shuja'iyya is just a critical spot in the 2014 war. It was from Shuja'iyya that the Nahal Oz outpost raid was which was a tunnel operation where Qassam tunneled underneath the border, came up and hit the Israeli position at Nahal Oz. And the Israelis lied about that happening and then Qassam released a video a couple of days later that showed that they that they had these attack tunnels going into Israel. And at that point we're not using them to raid settlements. They were using them to wait for soldiers. Qassam came out of one of the tunnels out from Shuja'iyya and they waited all day for Israeli military targets to show up to hit and they never the military targets didn't show up. The fighters went back into the tunnel and told the story afterwards. Um just remarkable fighting tradition in Shuja'iyya and of course the home of our dear friend Refaat. So let's look at number 15 here tomorrow. These are uh two IEDs and again, this is uh the fighters saying for our brother commander Izz ad-Din al-Qassam he's the Gaza Brigade Commander. Uh and the fighters are talking about reappropriating this one-ton missile and they say that uh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam said that uh his saying is that these are their goods being returned to the sender. Um so you see these fighters um planting this uh ambush for Israeli military vehicle. Um you can see the Shuwaf EFP type three there being buried. Um and it's going to be aimed uh you can see the fighters wiring it here and it's going to be aimed at the the 2,000-lb bomb to detonate the 2,000-lb bomb. And they say the fighters said before, I didn't catch it and didn't do it in time, but they said this is a gift from Netanya a gift for Netanyahu from the Lions of Shuja'iyya. And you can see the tanks uh moving in there and that's the first tank hitting and then this guy walks up to him and he says, "What you doing?" He says, "I'm just waiting." He says, "Hopefully one of the military vehicles will will will drive by." And the other guy says, "Yeah, we'll blow it up." And that's it. Uh it's just remarkable footage that Qassam doesn't usually show us, but um the Shuja'iyya Brigade uh battalion um uh they they've been waiting since December um for this next phase of the battle and you can clearly see that they're ready for it. They prepared these ambushes. You can see them a Merkava drive right past it. You're looking at a camera man holding that camera. That is not positioned on the on the shelf of the window sill there. That's a fighter holding that to get that shot. Uh which is remarkable. And Izz ad-Din al-Qassam the Gaza the Gaza Brigade Commander it says to be continued because there's going to be a lot more fighting in Shuja'iyya. Um so we we see these uh these preparations happening um despite the fact that the Israelis had said they cleared this area and didn't give any indication that they would be going back into this area. But, the moment they go back, they're hit with these operations that are very significant. Let's look at number 16 here cuz this is uh a soldier outside of a tank. This is going to be another one that you're going to have to go to my Twitter feed for to see the full video because we had to edit out what happens. But, you see a tank commander there just hanging out of his tank um Al-Ghoul sniper operation. On the writing it says, "And we will remain atop the mountain of archers, and behind us the sound of the prophet repeating, 'Do not retreat. Do not retreat.'" Which is uh Quranic verse about uh a battle of Uhud. Um and it's when their archers left their position um costing the Muslims the battle. So, this is fighters in Shuja'iyya saying, uh we will not retreat. We will not retreat. Um and the Israeli military clearly not able to handle uh what uh the Qassam formation in Shuja'iyya has in store for them um as the strongest fighting force fighting formation. And the Israelis seemed like they were avoiding Shuja'iyya um in on all of the previous wars Shuja'iyya was hit first. It's the closest to the border. Um it's where the fighters are. Um and so the Israelis would always hit Shuja'iyya first. In this war they didn't do that. They went Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and then moved along the beach, came down, and attacked the Shati uh refugee camp and Gaza City from the south. And they cut along the Netzarim Corridor and invaded Gaza City um from up from the south raiding north. Um they didn't try to push through Shuja'iyya uh in this battle. It's a place that haunts the Israelis. It's the place where um their defeat in Shuja'iyya in 2014 led to a massacre. One of the worst massacres up till that point in Palestinian history was the response to the defeat in Shuja'iyya of the ground forces of the Israeli ground maneuver. Um And so uh this is the destruction of Israel's armored vehicles led Israel to um to rush into service the Namer troop carrier that is much more uh protected troop carrier. Um and so this this is just the beginning of the battle. There is 57 separate qualitative operations that took place over the last 6 days in Shuja'iyya alone. Um more videos were released today um that uh that show command and control. They show fighters uh organized um still fighting as a national army, not yet fighting as guerrillas. Um which would happen once the national army was dismantled, which is not happening. And it's not even close to happening. And a uh couple week, three week, five week raid into Shuja'iyya is not going to change that uh about this situation. So um and then there's just one more I want to show you here, number 17. This is on the Netzarim corridor. There was more than 20 operations on the Netzarim corridor. And we're seeing here Qassam fighters with eyes on the corridor here. You can see the Israelis are driving here in Humvees and open-top jeeps. And there's a tank there. Um so fighters are now right up on the edge of the Netzarim corridor. And these operations are going to intensify. Um you saw how fast they could dig a tunnel in Rafah. Um so you can get an idea uh of what is possible if the Israelis believe that they can stay in the center of the Gaza Strip. And then we see a soldier in a window. Again, they're still doing it. Nine months on. Uh still doing it. Um, this is a There you see a traditional RPG-7 uh, thermobaric warhead. It's a single warhead. But, they don't need to punch the wall with this one cuz they could just blast it right through the the uh, cage the screen on that window. Um, and it explodes in a fuel-air explosion inside that building. And the Israelis admitted two killed in that operation, two severely wounded. Um, and what you're seeing is an Iranian um, RPG-7 warhead thermobaric warhead that is You could see We'll watch it here. You can see the fighter is going to hold it. And you can see that it only has one um, it only has one charge. It doesn't have the tandem charge of uh, the Yasin, um, which is the same casing as the thermobaric warhead that Qassam makes. Um, so you'll see the fighter here just in a moment. Show He'll show you the the the head of the round so you can see that he's using a different So, you could see it there. Um, and again, the reason why you don't need the second charge is because watch when they look through the window here, the soldiers are just in a window hanging a curtain. Just doing their thing. Just doing their thing. Seemingly not trained to do anything but massacre civilians and uh, rob from people uh, and destroy the schools, hospitals, um, the entire health care system, social fabric in Gaza dismantled. Um, but they're not able to stay out of windows still 9 months on. So, uh, that's the resistance report for this week. Thanks for watching this video. 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