Hamas releases rare footage of ambush behind enemy lines as Gaza endures brutal siege

Newly released footage reveals a daring operation behind enemy lines as Gaza's civilians suffer under an unrelenting siege.

On Thursday, Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, released footage of a remarkable ambush from December 3, 2024 in which its fighters planted explosives behind enemy lines that targeted over a dozen genocidal Israeli soldiers in Jabalia, northern Gaza. The footage clearly shows two Israeli jeeps being blown to bits after the planted bombs exploded in close proximity to them.

Here is how Al-Qassam explains the footage:

On December 3, 2024, during the third battle of Jabalia camp, our fighters carried out an infiltration operation behind enemy lines in the area of ​​the enemy airstrip (the evacuation point for the dead and wounded) east of Jabalia camp.

Our fighters targeted two enemy jeeps and a number of its soldiers with Shuath and Television explosives, in addition to a Yassin 105 shell.

As has been the case throughout the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza since 7 October, Qassam fighters adhered to their religious ethics in combat, refraining from targeting medical evacuations.

A helicopter is seen evacuating the dead and wounded as the video closes with a defiant message from a Qassam fighter: “By Allah, we will come for you one after the other!”

Usually, Hamas releases videos of its operations within days, if not a few weeks, so the publication of this footage after six months marks the longest-delayed release by the Palestinian resistance since 7 October.

Hamas explains that the publication of the video was held up due to “security reasons.”

Here is the just-over-two-minute-long video of the operation Hamas has named The Airstrip Ambush:

The Airstrip Ambush came at a time when Israel’s grotesque General’s Plan was in full swing in northern Gaza, where it planned to starve the Palestinians to death by laying a complete siege on any aid entering the north while relentlessly bombarding the 400,000 civilians who refused to move south as instructed by the Israelis.

The genocidal occupation military had besieged hospitals in the north, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital and and razed civilian infrastructure in the hospital’s vicinity, sniping defenceless civilians, and bombing the hospital infrastructure with explosive-laden robotic vehicles.

On December 3 , the day of The Airstrip Ambush, a bomb dropped by an occupation quadcopter on the emergency entrance of Kamal Adwan Hospital set off a fire and injured three medical personnel, one of whom was critically injured:

That same day the genocidal Israelis targeted the fifth floor of Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and drone-bombed the hospital’s yard.

Just a day earlier as the Israelis carried out their grotesque plan, Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman of Gaza Civil Defence, provided an update on the siege of the northern Gaza Strip, which at the time had resulted in 2,700 martyrs and 10,000 wounded over the past 60 days of the siege in the north:

The appeals of the Gaza Civil Defence, doctors, and residents of the north fell on deaf ears, as they have done since the start of the ongoing live-streamed genocide since October 7.

For the Palestinians, the resistance has been their only defence. In these inhumane circumstances, Al-Qassam fighters were displaying extraordinary bravery by infiltrating enemy lines and making them pay for their crimes against humanity.

Incidentally, on December 3, Al-Qassam had released the second part of its operation dedicated to their martyred chief, Yahya Sinwar, having released the first part of the operation named Avenging the Blood of Sinwar a couple of days earlier.

These operations, carried out in the midst of the General’s Plan, further demonstrate how the Israelis have executed the genocide in Gaza. Nearly all their attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure and defenceless civilians, as they have taken out one hospital after another, erected multiple mountains of corpses, and buried thousands more in the rubble of destroyed homes.

However, when faced against resistance they have not only failed to destroy a vast majority of its tunnel infrastructure, seize its weapons manufacturing facilities, or foil its ambushes, but have even failed to secure their own lines, leaving themselves vulnerable to infiltration by indomitable Palestinian fighters who have braved overhead drones and fighter jets to carry out their operations.

Six months later, nothing has changed. The Israelis are continuing their campaign of terror unhindered by any external constraint. Their Western backers refuse to do more than issue empty platitudes while supplying fully loaded weapons to incinerate Palestinians in their flimsy tents. The Israelis are killing upwards of a hundred civilians every day. Those who survive the bombs and the fires are being consumed by starvation as the Israelis refuse to allow sufficient aid to meet the needs of the population it has kept in a concentration camp for nearly two decades while bombing it at will. After a months-long siege, the self-proclaimed Jewish state is allowing a mere trickle of aid, which is being looted by goons it supports and provide cover for as they go about their theft.

The release of The Airstrip Ambush serves as both a powerful act of documentation and a declaration of steadfast resistance. As Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure a brutal siege and relentless bombardment — which, by most accounts, has killed upwards of a couple of hundred thousand people at a minimum — operations like these underscore the resilience of a people who refuse to be erased. While the Israeli military’s campaign has devastated civilian life and infrastructure, the persistence of the resistance sends a clear message: the Palestinian struggle for dignity, justice, and liberation endures — even under the most inhumane conditions.

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