TEHRAN - Palestinian resistance in the northwestern occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm ambushed an Israeli military convoy leaving five Israeli troops from the elite undercover Musta'ribeen unit injured with three in critical condition. 

Both sides have confirmed the casualties among the Israeli ranks. 

The operation is quite unique in that until several months ago, there was no known resistance operating at such a large scale in Tulkram, located east of the flashpoint cities of Jenin and Nablus. 

Experts had cited sources as saying that armed resistance in Tulkarm and its adjacent refugee camp was beginning to emerge. 

The sophisticated ambush is also a sign that the armed resistance is expanding across the occupied West Bank, in coordination with powerful Palestinian resistance factions in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Video clips show violent clashes and explosions in the Tulkarm camp after the occupation forces tried to raid it but later withdrew after suffering casualties. 

The Palestinian resistance said its fighters in Tulkarm “engaged in clashes (with Israeli troops) from the first point (of the troops' entrance to the city) with the occupation troops, inflicting severe injuries within their ranks and forcing them to withdraw.”

The Gaza-based military wing of the Hamas organization, the al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the operation.

Hamas strongly praised its fighters who carried out the Tulkarm operation, saying that the ambush was part of a series of retaliatory attacks in response to the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The five Israeli troops are believed to have been injured when they were caught in a tight ambush by the resistance at an Israeli military checkpoint, where explosions were heard and an exchange of gunfire occurred between a group of gunmen and the occupation forces that reinforced their forces in the area.

In a brief statement, the al-Qassam Brigades in the occupied West Bank said: “Our fighters in the Tulkarm camp were able to discover a special Zionist force that had infiltrated the camp at dawn, and they trapped it in a tight ambush that they had prepared in advance, where the fighters detonated a number of homemade devices at the storming vehicles, and then they engaged in a clash."

The Israeli army acknowledged that five of its soldiers were injured in the Tulkarm camp ambush on Thursday morning, including three, that it described are in "critical condition".

Footage published by the resistance from the scenes of the ambush, which they obtained after the Israeli forces withdrew, shows bombs and military equipment. 

A number of videos also show traces of blood as a result of the injuries sustained by the occupation troops, and traces of blood can also be seen on the ground.

Speaking to the media, eyewitnesses in the camp said that there were injuries among the occupation forces by the bullets and explosives of the resistance. 

Israeli media reported that five soldiers were injured, three of them in critical condition, after an explosive device was detonated under their vehicle as they were withdrawing from the Tulkarm camp.

In a separate incident, the regime's forces opened fire on a car with two Palestinian youths inside, in the village of al-Shufa, near Tulkarm. 

According to Israeli Army Radio, Palestinians opened fire from a car at a settler’s vehicle near the illegal Israeli settlement of Avnei Hefetz in the northern West Bank, and after pursuing it, those inside the car were "eliminated" at the entrance to Shufa village. An M16 rifle used in the Palestinian retaliatory operation was seized.

Israeli media cited an official from the Avnei Hefetz settlement as saying, “Palestinians opened fire on one of the [settlers] at the intersection of the [settlement] without wounding him. The army was active in the area, and the entrance and exit to the settlement were closed.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health later announced the death of the two young Palestinians after their car was sprayed with bullets.  

In turn, the al-Qassam Brigades mourned the martyrdom of its two fighters, Abd al-Rahman Atta (23 years old) and Hudhayfah Fares (27 years old), stressing that the operation “came in response to the ongoing occupation aggression," and that "more operations await the enemy". 

It also stressed that "the enemy's aggression and the targeting of our people's fighters will not succeed in stopping our resistance."

Settlers desecrating al-Aqsa

Meanwhile, the occupation forces were still preventing Muslim worshipers from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque. They were guarding settlers performing Talmudic rituals on the last days of the Jewish holidays.

On Thursday morning, scores of settlers stormed the holy Mosque from the direction of the Mughrabi Gate under the heavy protection of the occupation forces. 

The regime deployed various forces, including special units in the Old City of occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), the al-Aqsa Mosque, and its surrounding areas to secure the settlers’ incursions and ongoing provocations.

The Islamic Endowments Department in occupied al-Quds stated that more than 240 settlers had stormed the mosque compound since early Thursday morning, carrying out provocative measures and performing Talmudic rituals in the mosque's courtyards and at the external doors of Islam's third holiest site. 

It pointed out that the occupation's forces continued to restrict the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the holy mosque, checking their personal identities, detaining some of them at its external doors, and preventing young men from entering.

It also said that Israeli forces obstructed the entry of students to their schools and searched their bags at Bab al-Silsilah, one of the gates of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Israeli forces also obstructed the work of journalists while covering the raids in the Old City, the Islamic Endowments Department added. 
 
After being prevented from entering the mosque, many young Palestinians performed their dawn prayers at the Lions Gate in the Old City.

Attack on Nablus

Israeli forces attacked and injured scores of Palestinian protesters, including three with live bullets. The confrontations with Israeli forces came after angry Palestinians took to the streets of Nablus in protest at the storming of the city by the regime’s troops accompanying settlers attempting to reach Joseph's Tomb. 

The Director of Ambulance and Emergency at the Red Crescent in Nablus said that at least 190 Palestinians had been injured, including three injuries from live bullets, one from bullet fragments, two injuries from gas bombs directly to the head, one injury as a result of a fall, two with bruises, in addition to 180 cases of suffocation, while six of the injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. 

Following the storming of Nablus, armed clashes and violent confrontations broke out, as resistance forces targeted Israeli military vehicles with homemade explosive devices and Molotov cocktails, causing a fire in one of the Israeli jeeps and a military bulldozer, according to eyewitnesses, who described the situation like a warzone. 

Palestinian Islamic Jihad parade 

The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, the Al-Quds Brigades, in the besieged Gaza Strip also revealed a number of new missiles and drones that it will enter into military service. 

The revelations, which were made during a military parade, coincided with the 36th anniversary of the founding of the movement.

More than 60 units belonging to the al-Quds Brigades participated in a military march, in addition to displaying rocket launchers and a group of anti-armor weapons carrying different models.

The resistance movement announced the entry of a new missile, bearing the name "Jaafar", into military service for the first time, without specifying its range and destructive capacity, in addition to showcasing "Badr 3" missiles for the first time in the Gaza Strip.

The parade also saw a number of locally made drones, including the Sahab drone, which will also enter service for the first time. Several other drones were put on display. 

The resistance movement revealed a number of new missiles with long ranges. The movement’s missile force explained that they had entered service after the “Revenge of the Free” battle last May.

The military parade concluded with a speech by an official of the movement’s military department and a member of its political bureau, Akram al-Ajouri, in which he said that the occupation “wanted normalization to isolate and marginalize the resistance and eliminate the Palestinian cause.”

Al-Ajouri stressed that the plans and conspiracies of the occupation will not succeed, adding that the al-Quds Brigades are "preparing and striking in all arenas".

He ended his speech with the declaration that “A FINAL DECISION IS COMING, GOD WILLING.”

On Friday, the Palestinian resistance organized a festival at al-Katiba Square, west of Gaza City, simultaneously with Syria and Lebanon, under the title “Martyrs are the glad tidings of victory".