Hamas unleashes the 'Gates of Hell' on Israeli troops in Gaza
Al-Qassam Brigades publish footage of a complex ambush in Rafah, featuring tunnel detonations, targeted armour strikes, and close-quarters engagements.
Hamas continues to perform military miracles in Gaza.
On Wednesday evening, Hamas’s military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, released footage of its deadly operations from May 3. The operation, which Al-Qassam named Gates of Hell, involved multiple events and took place in the area of Al-Zahraa Mosque in Al-Jeneina neighbourhood, east of Rafah City in the southern Gaza Strip.
Notably, Al-Qassam had issued field reports from its fighters on Sunday (May 4), as I reported in these pages. As has been the case throughout Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza that began in October 2023, the field reports from the resistance fighters have always painted the true picture of the events as they transpired. The Gates of Hell operation is no different.
The video (attached below) explains the sequence of events as they unfold:
The complex ambush began when a number of fighters emerged from a rigged tunnel to clash with enemy soldiers at the targeted location.
The fighters engaged the soldiers at point-blank range with appropriate weapons.
According to the plan, the fighters retreated inside the tunnel to lure the enemy soldiers.
As soon as the soldiers arrived at the tunnel entrance, it was detonated, causing deaths and injuries.
The action then moves to another location, as one fighter explains (at 3:19 in the video), “We have hit you in one place and now we are coming for you in another.”
In the third part of the detailed ambush, the Qassam fighters target the rescue forces that come to retrieve the dead and wounded Zionists. They scorch a Merkava tank with a Yassin 105 before targeting a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer — a favourite of the Zionists for their campaign of terror in Gaza and the West Bank — which receives the same treatment with another Yassin 105 shell.
Here is the Gates of Hell operation in all its glory:
At the start of the video, a Qassam fighter explains how the organisation’s leadership gave the order to launch the operation and how Rafah remains unconquerable:
The leadership of Al-Qassam issued the following order to launch the Gates of Hell series of operations. It affirms that Rafah, after a year of battle, has been — and remains — a place that scatters your forces and seizes your souls. Let the Gates of Hell open wide. Let every home and alley in Rafah become a ticking bomb that claims the lives of your elite forces.
Around the 55-second mark, a fighter gives a glimpse of target selection and how the resistance studies the movement of Israeli terrorists before deciding how and when to attack:
After studying the enemy’s movements and behavior, the location for the ambush has been selected, the kill zone identified, and a plan laid out to lure in enemy forces. The leadership has confirmed the selected targets and the directive to eliminate them.
After targeting them at close range with light weapons, the Qassam fighters closely monitor Zionist troops through an improvised rear-view camera from a car, as they enter a booby-trapped tunnel shaft, before detonating it on top of them.
The video cuts to the photos of Noam Ravid and Yaly Seror, the two soldiers whose death in the ambush has been acknowledged by the Israeli press.
If the footage is any indication, it is hard to see how any of the soldiers caught in the detonated tunnel survived. Al-Qassam counts four Israelis entering the building. Moreover, the precise twin attacks on the Merkava and the D9 bulldozer must have resulted in further casualties. This is yet another clear indication that the Israelis have been concealing the true number of troop casualties throughout the course of the genocidal war.
Towards the end of the video, a Qassam fighter, delivers a message to the people of Gaza and specifically those of Rafah:
And finally, our message to our people — to the free among our people across the Strip, and especially to the people of the Rafah of steadfastness:
Today, the branch of the tree stands before its deeply rooted origin, declaring: We promise and pledge:
We remain here, on our land, defending you, our religion, and our beloved homeland.
But this is not all from the Gates of Hell.
Before releasing the five-minute video, Al-Qassam issued two back-to-back updates about the continuation of the Gates of Hell operations.
The first update, issued in the afternoon, stated that the clashes near Mashrou’ Junction, east of Rafah City, were still ongoing at the time of publication:
As part of the Gates of Hell series of operations, Al-Qassam fighters lured a Zionist infantry force consisting of 10 soldiers and two military dogs into a preplanned ambush rigged with several explosive devices. Once the soldiers arrived at the ambush site, the explosives were detonated, causing deaths and injuries among the enemy soldiers near the Mashrou’ Junction east of Rafah City in the southern Gaza Strip. Our fighters monitored the arrival of a helicopter evacuation, and the clashes are still ongoing.
Fifteen minutes later, there was another update about the Gates of Hell operation:
As part of the Gates of Hell series of operations, Al-Qassam fighters targeted a Zionist force entrenched inside a house near the Mashrou’ Junction east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip with two TBG shells, inflicting deaths and injuries on them. Our fighters then advanced towards the targeted house and eliminated the remaining members of the force at point-blank range with their light weapons.
Additional videos of Hamas’s men scorching the genocidal Zionists will be coming soon.
Considering the vast destruction Zionist terrorists have wrought in Gaza, and particularly in Rafah, which now resembles a moonscape and where Israelis merrily go about demolishing the few structures that still remain standing, it is remarkable that the Zionists have still not managed to navigate the area safely.
Hamas still has the enemy troop movements completely mapped out and exacts a heavy price for their ongoing egregious crimes. Its command and control, as evidenced by the Gates of Hell ambush, remains fully operational with multiple steps — from planning to booby-trapping and subsequent detonations — executed flawlessly.
These operations fly in the face of the tall Israeli claims about diminishing the capacity of the resistance. Despite losing two of the foremost pillars of the resistance — Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif — during the course of the war, Al-Qassam fighters appear to be executing complex missions without missing a step, while conducting themselves with ethics and morals that have no parallel in modern military history.
The source of the Palestinian fighters’ uprightness is best illustrated by a supplication made by one fighter around the 4:10 mark in the video, after successfully executing his mission:
Allah is the Greatest and praise be to Him. O Allah, this is for Your cause, seeking Your pleasure, for the liberation of Your servants and the purification of Your sanctities. O Allah, for Your cause and in pursuit of Your satisfaction — O Lord, accept it from us.
Even after 19 months of relentless bombardment — backed by full military, financial, and diplomatic support from the West — along with constant aerial surveillance and a continued Israeli troop presence, the Palestinian resistance stands as tall as ever.
It is hard to put into words how remarkable this feat is. Miracle doesn’t even begin to cover it.
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