The Israeli media reveals the details of the violent battle of Shujaiya which lasted for hours

The Israeli army announced on Wednesday that 115 soldiers have been killed so far since the start of the ground attack on the Gaza Strip, 10 of whom were killed the previous day, most of them in one battle.

The killing of ten soldiers made Tuesday the day that witnessed the highest death toll among Israeli forces since the start of the ground attack on October 27.

Nine of those killed on Tuesday belonged to units that a military spokesman said participated in a fierce battle in Shujaiya, and two of the dead were senior officers.

Israeli Army Spokesman Daniel Hagari added, “Yesterday afternoon, a force of Golani Brigade entered a building, where they were met with heavy gunfire and clashed with the militants”.

He explained, “More brigade forces, supported by the 669th Rescue Unit of the Air Force, stormed the building in order to rescue them under intense fire”.

Another military official said that the Shujaiya area in Gaza City is a Hamas stronghold and contains interconnected building complexes containing weapons caches.

The clash took place on Tuesday in a group of three or four buildings rigged with explosive devices, according to the official, who confirmed that the battle lasted hours.

On Wednesday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper described the battle that took place in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, between the Israeli army and Hamas fighters as a “dangerous incident that lasted for more than two hours”.

This came in a report in which the Israeli newspaper revealed the circumstances of the death of 9 Israeli soldiers, which it said were killed in an ambush set up by Hamas’s al Qassam Brigades, in the Shujaiya neighborhood (northern Gaza Strip) for Israeli forces during battles that took place on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier Wednesday, the Israeli army announced in two separate statements that 10 soldiers, including 6 officers, were killed in battles in the northern Gaza Strip.

The army allowed the publication of the names of 9 officers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade who were killed in the ambush and 4 others were seriously injured.

The Golani Infantry Brigade is called the elite of the Israeli army.

Yedioth Ahronoth said, “9 soldiers, including a brigadier general and a lieutenant colonel, were killed in the battle of Shujaiya”.

Yedioth Ahronoth added: “The serious incident in Shujaiya, in which fighters from the Golani Brigade and the 669th Special Rescue Tactical Unit were killed, including Brigadier General Ishaq Ben Bashit, the former commander of the Yiftah Brigade, and the commander of the 13th Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Tomer Greenberg, began Tuesday at 16:30… It lasted about two and a half hours”.

The Israeli newspaper explained that the battles broke out when a joint team from the 53rd Armored Battalion, which also included the Golani Elite Force and an engineering force, participated in clearing the Kasbah a densely populated area northwest of the Shujaiya neighborhood of Hamas militants”.

The Israeli newspaper continued, “An Israeli army force entered a site consisting of three adjacent buildings and a courtyard from two directions, and found a tunnel opening at the site… When it entered one of the buildings, the militants fired an explosive device at it, along with hand grenades and fire from M16 rifles”.

The first force, consisting of 4 soldiers, was wounded, then the force outside tried to clash with the gunmen, but at this stage contact with one of the officers was cut off”.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, fears increased at that time that the Israeli officer had been kidnapped and taken to one of the tunnels, so the Golani elite force, which was nearby, moved quickly and arrived at the battle site.

But the advancing forces were also met with a barrage of fire, and when Rescue Unit 669 advanced, it was ambushed and two of its members were killed, according to the same source.

The Israeli newspaper reported that the rescue operation continued while the gunmen continued to shoot and throw explosives from all directions at the site outside the building that the first force tried to storm.

The rescue force discovered that the four fighters from the first force were killed in the building; Lieutenant Colonel Greenberg’s force came under fire from a second building on the site, and with the fierce battle that followed, Israeli soldiers fired Matador (anti-armor) shells at a neighboring building, which caught fire and exploded due to the large number of explosive devices in it.

For its part, the Kan channel, affiliated with the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, said in its commentary on the battle of Shujaiya, “We see that after yesterday’s battle, that neighborhood still represents a solid nucleus for the Hamas resistance force that is still present in the northern Gaza Strip”.

Kan channel added, “Shujaiya remains the symbol and solid core of Hamas since the days of Protective Edge the war on Gaza, July 8, 2014 – August 26, 2014”.

Kan channel continued, “Even though the two commanders of the Shujaiya Battalion were killed one week apart, that didn’t break them… The Israeli army tried to break the morale of this battalion even before the ground operation, but they didn’t succeed, unfortunately”.

Witnesses and sources were quoted as saying, the ambush involved direct shooting at a special unit of the Israeli forces, and an explosive device was detonated in it.

The first force received support from a second force that also fell into a similar ambush and was directly shot at.