Hamas's footage of the deadly Beit Hanoun ambushes that pushed Israel to a ceasefire
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
One of the most remarkable aspects of the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza and the weekly exchange of Israeli prisoners of war for Palestinian hostages is the conspicuous presence of the resistance fighters throughout the enclave. The men clothed in military gear with their finger on the trigger — often of the guns seized from the Israelis — seem innumerable, as if the resistance never lost its strength through the course of the 15 months of the genocidal war it braved in defence of its people and land.
But that’s not the case. Hamas has surely lost many fighters. Just last week, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced the martyrdom of its Commander in Chief Muhmmad Deif, the man known as “the Shadow” for his ability to evade the Israelis and survive over a half dozen Zionist assassination attempts. Deif’s martyrdom was announced along with six other high-ranking Qassam officials, including that of his deputy Marwan Issa. Former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by the transnational mafia masquerading as the country of Israel in Tehran while Saleh al-Arouri, the Hamas chief in the West Bank, was killed in Beirut last year. Yahya Sinwar’s martyrdom, especially his heroic last stand, has become the stuff of legend.
These losses notwithstanding, the ranks of the resistance remain tight as ever, as has been evidenced not just by the show of strength during the prisoner exchanges and the assessments of the Americans — Blinken: “We assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost.” — but also the way they smoked the Israeli troops in the two weeks preceding the ceasefire deal.
Throughout late December and early January, we were provided textual updates of the resistance fighters killing genocidal Israelis in deadly ambushes in north Gaza, especially in Beit Hanoun. Those numbers were somewhat corroborated by the Israeli military, which typically hides or undercounts its losses. In the first two weeks of this year, the resistance killed more Israelis than it did at anytime during the course of the genocide. The heavy losses — especially in a locality completely devastated by a months-long barbaric bombing and starvation campaign — undoubtedly played a huge role in convincing the Israelis they won’t be having their way in Gaza no matter how long their terror campaign continued. The ceasefire was announced on January 15.
Now Al-Qassam Brigades has provided copious video proof of the carnage its fighters wrought on the usurping occupiers. In a two-part video called the “Death Ambushes Series,” Qassam late last month released over 17 minutes of footage, showing numerous operations, including sniper shots, anti-personnel shell attacks, scorching of Merkava tanks and bulldozers, and exploding rigged homes on top of Zionist foot soldiers.
Qassam released the first video, which is just over eight minutes long, on January 24. It covers multiple operations, starting from December 29 until January 7.
Death Ambushes Series - I
Interestingly, the commander of the Beit Hanoun battalion, Hussein Fayyad (Abu Hamza) — whose death was announced by the Israeli military in its typical bombastic and deceitful language on May 23 last year: “Fiad’s elimination was part of IDF operational activity above and below ground to locate tunnels and eliminate terrorists in Jabaliya, northern Gaza” — makes an appearance in the first video around 2:43 mark and is seen telling a group of fighters, “In this place, the deputy of the commander of the Nahal brigade was killed. He had advanced to commit genocide against Beit Hanoun. They will not pass without being punished.”
Fayyad goes on to say that the martyrdom of Sinwar was avenged with the killing of the two commanders of the unit, which was involved in the killing of the former Hamas chief, “The Nahal battalion used to say we will commit genocide against Rafah when the head of the political bureau of Hamas martyr Yahya Sinwar (Abu Ibrahim), was assassinated. Today, revenge was taken for the soul of martyr Yahya Sinwar in Beit Hanoun and killing two of the commanders of the unit who participated in the field operation in Rafah and the deputy of the commander of the brigade was killed and had the commander been with them, he would have been killed as well.”
Fayyad’s little talk is immediately followed by the footage of the killings of “Dvir Zion Revah, commander of a company in the Granit 932 Battalion” and “Eitan Yisrael Shkenazi, deputy of the commander of a company in the Granit 932 Battalion.”
Fayyad was later seen in Beit Hanoun a couple of days after the ceasefire, mingling with his people and undoubtedly regaling them with stories of heroism of his fighters during the genocidal war.
The second video, slightly longer than the first, was released on January 26 and shows operations from January 2 until January 15, the day when the three-phase ceasefire was announced.
Death Ambushes Series - II
The last operation, which starts at 4:17 in the second video, shows an explosion so devastating that it flips a Merkava tank, likely leaving no survivors. The footage also underlines how the Palestinian resistance never wavered from fighting ethically in the over-a-year-long genocidal campaign during which the Zionists attacked 34 hospitals, 80 health centers, 212 medical institutions, and 191 ambulances; and killed 1,155 medical personnel. The Israeli crew that came to rescue the dead from the Merkava explosion appeared within the firing range of the resistance, but they were never harmed — a consistent theme in all such videos, where the resistance has recorded rescue missions without ever attacking them.
These videos reveal how the Israelis were taken completely by surprise with the resilience of the resistance which didn’t just remain on its feet despite 15 months of relentless fighting, but somehow appeared to get stronger with time. The Zionist foot soldiers couldn’t comprehend the scenes they were witnessing.
Almog Baker of Israeli Channel 12 collected some of their testimonies:
“We are fighting in an environment monitored by cameras by the militants. They have planted explosive devices in every alley and are activating them from inside the tunnels; their underground network is fully operational.”
“We cannot see them with the naked eye. For a week and a half, there has been no direct identification of the militants. They have completely rigged Beit Hanoun with a huge amount of explosive devices and remnants of the [Israeli] air force’s bombs.
“Every alley, every intersection is filled with state-of-the-art cameras, 360 degree thermal cameras.”
“They choose targets carefully, and monitor movement through cameras: if there is a drone, they do not activate the bombs, but if there is a military force, they activate them.”
In just the second month of the war, French outlet Le Monde published an article after visiting Beit Hanoun for two hours. It began with a remarkable line, “Beit Hanoun is not only dead, Beit Hanoun no longer exists.”
The Israelis sure found out the existence of Beit Hanoun in all its explosive majesty 15 months later.
There’s a famous quote attributed to Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The Israelis had plans. Lots of them. From sending Palestinians into the Sinai and Jordan — which has been revived once again by Trump — to facilitating their “voluntary migration” into Europe, Indonesia, and Narnia. When none of those plans materialised, they settled upon extermination and activated the so-called “general’s plan” of total annihilation of northern Gaza. Then they got punched in the face — repeatedly.
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Palestine notes: How Europe projected its unique antisemitism disease on the Middle East
Palestine notes is inspired by the Pass notes in the British imperialist propaganda rag, also known as the Guardian.
Thanks for the reminder that Trump is only trying to revive the genocidal intent proclaimed on day two of Toufan al-Aqsa and the summary of the brave resistance in the closing weeks before the ceasefire halted the immensely destructive western actions on a tiny civilian enclave.
What comes around goes around. Karma