GAZA CITY
A group of Anadolu Agency journalists and photographers recently had the unique opportunity to tour the tunnels used by the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian resistance faction Hamas, during Israel's recent onslaught on the beleaguered Gaza Strip.
The AA team was offered the chance to see the tunnels used by the brigades, especially since Israel began attempting to stage ground operations in the beleaguered strip on July 17.
Reporters were shown anti-tank rockets and Russian-made "Konkurs" missiles used by the brigades – especially in Gaza City's Shujaya neighborhood – to target Israeli tanks and other heavy military equipment.
One brigades fighter revealed that tunnels in the same area had been used to target an Israeli army jeep on the strip's eastern border with an anti-tank missile.
He said the attack had left three Israeli troops dead and two others injured.
Inside another tunnel, brigades fighters showed AA reporters a mortar gun used to shell Israeli forces as they attempted to enter Shujaya.
"The launcher was used to provide cover to a number of operations carried out by the brigades against the enemy," one fighter deployed in the tunnel said.
"One of the sites attacked this way was Nahal Oz [in southern Israel]," the fighter explained, which, he said, had left ten Israeli troops dead.
He said the same tunnel had been used to shell concentrations of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles.
The same fighter said mortar-launching tunnels were located in almost every part of Gaza.
He added that, generally, he and his colleagues target Israeli military assets based on instructions from their commanders.
"When we receive instructions, we start implementing them immediately," he said.
The AA team also visited a tunnel that had been used by brigades fighters to attack Israeli troops that had infiltrated eastern Gaza City as part of a ground incursion.
On the night of the incursion, another fighter said, he and his colleagues had heard noise from approaching Israeli military equipment.
"When one of the mujahedeen [fighters] looked out of the tunnel, he said saw an Israeli tank only seven meters away from the tunnel opening," the fighter recalled.
He added that the Qassam fighter had planted 50kg of explosives near the tank before ordering his colleagues inside the tunnel to stand clear.
"He then detonated the explosives, blasting the Israeli tank into pieces," the Qassam fighter said.
He told of another fighter who saw an Israeli armored vehicle about 50 meters away from the tunnel opening.
"He targeted it with an anti-tank missile, partially destroying it," he recalled.
Israel began ground operations in the Gaza Strip on July 17, the 12th day of "Operation Protective Edge," which began on July 7.
The Qassam Brigades said it carried out scores of attacks on the Israeli army during the latter's ground incursion.
Around 64 Israeli troops were killed in Gaza combat, according to Israeli official figures. But Hamas, for its part, says it killed 161 Israeli troops while capturing others.
The Israeli army pulled ground troops out of Gaza on August 5.
Israel's military operation against the strip has left 2016 Palestinians dead and 10,193 others injured.
By Yasser al-Banna
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
