CAIRO, June 6. /TASS/. The Palestinian radical movement Hamas claimed that a group of its supporters had broken through the security fence on the border of the Gaza Strip and attacked the headquarters of an Israeli military unit, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of, said in a report on its Telegram channel.
A team of Hamas supporters "carried out a landing operation behind enemy [the Israeli army] lines," the radicals said. Members of the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades "managed to break through the barrier fortifications [on the border with Gaza] and attacked the headquarters of a military unit that is participating in the military operation in the city of Rafah in the southern [Gaza] Strip," the report reads.
The report did not say if the attack had inflicted casualties on either the Palestinian radicals of the Israeli military.
Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the Israeli military had eliminated three armed radicals who approached the border from the Gaza Strip and moved toward Israel. According to the Israeli Army, its troops "engaged the terrorists who opened fire at them." The Israeli military emphasized that that the terrorists had not crossed the fence built and that the incident was under review.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank. In late November 2023, a temporary humanitarian ceasefire was brokered by Egypt and Qatar that lasted a week, during which 110 hostages were released, according to Israel. On December 1, the ceasefire was violated and fighting resumed, continuing to this day.