TEHRAN- The armed wing of Hamas has announced it has "completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Zionist military vehicles," including tanks and bulldozers since the regime's ground operations began in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Abu Ubeida, the official spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades, has said that more than 25 Israeli military vehicles have been destroyed over the last 48 hours alone. 

The Israeli ground forces "operating in the residential buildings and areas it bombed, as well as a scorched earth, are being targeted by traps laid out by the resistance fighters."

He has strongly condemned "American-Zionist warships loaded with hundreds of thousands of tons of weapons, that are indiscriminately attacking Gaza, alongside the warplanes, which are not differentiating between civilians and combatants." 

Abu Ubeida has said the "brave resistance fighters are targeting the mobilization of Israeli troops with mortar rounds, artillery, explosive devices that they are quickly planting, explosive drones as well as mortar shells." 

"Our resistance fighters remain busy in the battlefield, lurking near the enemy’s troops and vehicles. Every hour, they are attacking them," he added. 

The military spokesperson for Hamas has also said that "Israeli tanks and infantry are facing powerful resistance and fierce clashes that have compelled the regime's ground forces to retreat from the areas it occupies and change the routes of its ground offensive."

In a warning to the Israeli regime, he has highlighted that "Gaza will be an arena where Israeli troops will meet their death. The enemy, which knows Gaza very well, will not have an hour to rest, but rather it will pay a very strong and unexpected price."

The Israeli military slowly began its ground operations in the Gaza Strip around two weeks ago and claims nearly 50 of its troops have been killed by the Palestinian resistance since then, with scores of others injured, many in serious condition.

The regime tends to downplay its military casualty figures and revise them upwards at a later stage. 

The al-Qassam spokesperson has pointed out that "the confrontation is militarily unequal, yet it frightens and terrifies the most powerful force in the region."

"Al-Qassam fighters come out from under the ground, above it, and from under the rubble, and destroy the occupation's armor and tanks," he added. 

Reports in Gaza indicate fierce clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters all night around Gaza City. 

Abu Ubeida has noted that "the cruel and barbaric massacres committed by the enemy, that have targeted hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and residential areas for five weeks in front of the world, are its only achievement in this war."

He explained that "the easiest and quickest revenge? by the Zionists is by bombarding civilian sites." 
Israeli warplanes have just killed around 5,000 Palestinian children.  

"(This) is aimed at appeasing the internal (occupation) population," he said, stressing that "the great sacrifice made by the resistance is a prelude to its victory."
Israeli warplanes have struck more than 11,000 civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, claiming they are targeting Hamas sites. 

During his speech on Saturday afternoon, the Secretary-General of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, asked: "Does Hamas have this many military sites?"

The armed wing of Hamas is believed to have scores of military sites, at most hundreds, but certainly not tens of thousands. 

In a separate statement following Abu Ubeida's briefing, the al-Qassam brigades said the resistance is continuing to engage in fierce clashes, and are blowing up Israeli occupation vehicles at all the directions and points which the occupation is trying to advance toward Gaza, whilst targeting Israeli mobilization sites across the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, the al-Qassam Brigades said it targeted "a Zionist ground force with an explosive device in the Khuza’a area, east of Khan Yunis in the Southern Gaza Strip, and achieved a direct hit.”

This is another indication that Israeli ground forces are operating in the southern Gaza Strip where the regime claimed it would be safe for Palestinian civilians to travel to. 

The Gaza health ministry has said that an Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed thirteen civilians, after the regime's missile struck a residential home in Khan Younis. 
This is just one of many airstrikes that have been reported by Palestinian officials and reporters in the south of the enclave.  

Also on Sunday, the armed wing of Hamas announced "the destruction of an Israeli enemy tank southwest of Gaza City with an Al-Yassin 105 shell."

This comes as the al-Qassam Brigades published a video documenting the resistance fighters targeting Israeli tanks with close-range rocket fire in the al-Tawam and Beit Hanoun areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

In some of the scenes, the freedom fighters?, carrying an anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade on their shoulders, can be heard chanting in celebration as they carefully fire and blow up Israeli tanks. 

Meanwhile, sirens continue to sound in the settlements near the Gaza Strip and Tel Aviv with casualties reported by Israeli media. The settlement of Sderot is more than a kilometer away from the Gaza separation barrier.

Yet the Israeli military’s much boasted about iron dome system, which is designed to shoot rockets out of the sky, more than frequently doesn’t have time to react.