Israeli Occupation Forced to Retreat from Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun after Fierce Resistance
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Palestinian resistance fighters forced Israeli troops to retreat from Gaza City’s al-Zaytoun neighborhood following hours of intense clashes, reports from resistance media outlets said.
The ambushes, lasting nearly four hours, inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces. At least one Israeli soldier was killed, 11 others were injured, and four remain unaccounted for.
Fighters engaged the occupation troops in close-quarters combat, targeted armored units, and exchanged fire with Israeli helicopter gunships. Heavy shelling rocked the neighborhood as resistance units countered the assault.
Additional confrontations were reported in Gaza City’s al-Sabra district and in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The withdrawal marks another blow to Tel Aviv’s attempt to impose control over Gaza City, the Strip’s largest urban center. The assault is part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of mass killings and forced displacement, which began in October 2023 and has been denounced by rights groups and governments worldwide as collective punishment and a war of genocide.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Israeli forces are facing exhaustion and disillusionment, further complicating their assault. The Gaza City offensive has been criticized internationally for disregarding civilian lives, with hundreds of thousands forced to flee south under relentless bombardment.
Despite Tel Aviv’s propaganda portraying the clashes as “security incidents,” the scale of resistance has exposed the fragility of its campaign and underscored the resilience of Gaza’s armed movements.
