TEHRAN- After more than 236 days of war on the Gaza Strip, the armed wing of Hamas announced that it had executed a complex operation in the east of Rafah city.

The al-Qassam Brigades said its fighters lured an Israeli force into an ambush that resulted in the death of four occupation soldiers and the injury of several others. 

In another statement, the al-Qassam Brigades said three Israeli Merkava tanks had been targeted with mortar shells in Rafah.

In the Sultan neighborhood west of Rafah, Al-Qassam targeted an Israeli D9 bulldozer with a Yassin 105 shell. Additionally, two Israeli Merkava tanks were targeted in the vicinity of Khalid bin al-Waleed Mosque in the Salam neighborhood east of Rafah.

While the resistance continues its operations on various fronts, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) acknowledged on Wednesday the death of three soldiers with the Nahal Brigade as a result of a powerful explosion in a besieged building in a combat zone in Rafah city. 

The IOF also announced the injury of 26 others, 7 in critical condition, during battles with the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip.

The latest casualties highlight the lack of any military progress against Hamas by Tel Aviv, while Israeli captives remain in Gaza and the IOF is killing an alarming number of civilians.

More aid groups have condemned Israeli airstrikes in Rafah. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates in Gaza, said targeting densely populated areas with displaced civilians was "a violation of international humanitarian law and completely unjustifiable".

Dozens of women and children have been killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah over the past few days, while 45 were killed in a strike that caused a deadly fire that swept through a tent camp for displaced Palestinians on Sunday.

Kiryn Lanning, the IRC's director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said, "These incidents reaffirm our repeated warnings that no place and nobody is safe in Gaza.
"Camps housing displaced people must never be targeted. The reports from the ground are extremely disturbing - with people trapped in the fire and burning tents.

"There was not a single evacuation order for these attacks given to civilians that have sought shelter in Rafah after being displaced from other parts of Gaza.

"The targeting of so-called safe zones, densely populated with displaced civilians, is a violation of international humanitarian law and completely unjustifiable.

"The high concentration of civilians in these zones makes it impossible to avoid significant collateral damage and high mortality rates during military offensives, even with precision targeting."

Adding to the humanitarian crisis facing civilians, Gaza’s Ministry of health announced in a statement on Wednesday that the Indonesian field hospital and Tal al-Sultan clinic in Rafah have gone out of service.

Pressure is mounting on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to call out Tel Aviv. The American leader had previously set a “Red Line” over any IOF ground incursion in Gaza’s last refuge for civilians in Rafah. 

U.S. media outlets have revealed that the munitions used in the massacre of 45 civilians on Sunday night were made in America. 

The revelations will only add to global public fury with the U.S. administration’s ongoing support for the IOF and the green light to expand its ground invasion of Rafah.