A screengrab from a video published by the Military Media of PIJ's al-Quds Brigades depicting one of its snipers taking out an Israeli occupation soldier (Military Media)

The Israeli occupation forces withdrew from several neighborhoods in Absan, east of Gaza's Khan Younis following fierce confrontations in the area, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported on Tuesday.

The withdrawal was accompanied by an escalation in the southeastern al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

The Israeli occupation forces acknowledged the death of a major in its ranks. The officer taken out by the resistance was a company commander in the Givati Brigade.

Israeli media quoted the spokesman for the Israeli Soroka Military Hospital as saying that during the past 24 hours, 11 wounded soldiers who fell during the battles in the Gaza Strip were airlifted to Soroka, 6 of whom were in serious condition.

سرايا القدس تبث مشاهد من قنص جندي صهيوني في محاور القتال شرق خانيونس pic.twitter.com/t6omR2Puur
— رضوان الأخرس (@rdooan) February 27, 2024

The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, announced Tuesday that it was fiercely engaging the Israeli occupation forces at point-blank range in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

As part of the confrontations, the al-Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters destroyed an Israeli D9 armored bulldozer using the Yassin-105 anti-armor RPG east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Al-Qassam's fighters also destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank using the Yassin-105 RPG in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

The Resistance bombed an Israeli assembly point using high-caliber mortar shells, inflicting numerous casualties on the invading Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian fighters reported seeing Blackhawk and Yasur helicopters in the area, which indicates that the Israeli occupation forces were carrying out rescue operations for the soldiers hit by the Resistance's barrage of mortar shells.

The al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, reported that its forces destroyed an Israeli infantry fighting vehicle using a Thaqeb improvised explosive device (IED) east of al-Zaytoun neighborhoods.

Israeli F-16 missile used against IOF

Momentously, the al-Quds Brigades utilized an Israeli-launched F-16 missile to bomb "Israel's" own forces after the missile was unexploded and was found among the rubble in a civilian area.

The al-Quds Brigades managed to ensnare a large number of Israeli soldiers in a civilian home that had been booby-trapped with the unexploded Israeli missile, with its engineers working on activating the missile and using it to blow up the house with all the soldiers inside of it.

The al-Quds Brigades bombed several Israeli assembly points in Absan using mortar shells and engaged in urban combat with Israeli soldiers west of Khan Younis.

The PIJ's military wing also used 60mm mortar shells to bombard the positions of Israeli soldiers east of the al-Zaytoun Neighborhood.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigaded, the military wing of the Fatah resistance movement announced that its forces used an Asef IED to blow up an advancing Israeli military vehicle to disable it before using an RPG to destroy it.

Meanwhile, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades bombarded an Israeli assembly point and other vehicles in the advancement axis near the State Intersection south of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City with a barrage of 60mm mortar shells.

Palestinian Resistance pushing back

The artillery units of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) used tactical rockets against the invading occupation forces in eastern Gaza while engaging the combat axis in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood with mortar shells.

Its combat units, in cooperation with the al-Qassam Brigades, engaged in intense clashes with enemy forces in the al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis.

The Mujahideen Brigades, the military wing of the popular resistance committees announced targeting an Israeli vehicle with an anti-tank shell in the al-Zaytoun advancement axis in Gaza City, in addition to destroying an Israeli tank of a Merkava 4 type tank by targeting it with a tandem shell in the southern al-Zaytoun axis.

The Mujahideen Brigades also announced that they targeted the Israeli settlement of "Ra'im" with a barrage of rockets.

A source in the Palestinian Resistance told Al Mayadeen from the al-Zaytoun neighborhood that the Israeli occupation forces failed for the ninth day in a row to advance in the area as they continue to be fiercely confronted by the Palestinian Resistance.

Advances came to a grinding halt

The past few weeks saw heavy confrontations between Palestinian Resistance fighters and Israeli occupation forces in central and southern Gaza, with one of the most violent being in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, as Israeli occupation forces continue to attempt to break the Resistance in regions earlier claimed to be "under control."

Resistance fighters are "closer to the enemy that it fathoms, monitoring its movements and targeting them with appropriate weapons," the source confirmed.

Shedding light on the Israeli failure to gain control of the neighborhood, the source pointed out that the occupation has so far leveled dozens of buildings and houses using all types of weapons, but is still unable to establish control.

On that note, the source revealed that Resistance fighters have destroyed over 20 Israeli military vehicles in the past nine days, and conducted dozens of ambushes, sniper operations, and rocket launches at military gatherings and command centers.

Resistance in al-Zaytoun continues

Palestinian Resistance groups announced on Monday a series of operations carried out in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades said it had shelled a gathering of occupation forces advancing south of the neighborhood with heavy-caliber mortar shells.

Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced targeting two military vehicles with RPG shells near the al-Dawlah Intersection in al-Zaytoun, and another operation striking a gathering of enemy soldiers and vehicles with a barrage of mortar shells.

Reporting the latest numbers last Sunday, the Israeli occupation forces admitted that 580 of their soldiers and officers have been killed since October 7, while 240 have been killed since the Israeli military invaded the Gaza Strip in late October 2023.