CrossFireArabia
The battle for the Al Shujaiyia starts but this will again be a tough fight for the Israeli army who are determined to subdue the area despite high expectations to the contrary.
Israeli troops under air-cover and aerial bombardment, are entering the destroyed town for the third time and in as many months but to no apparent success.
For the Israeli army, this neighborhood stands as a sore thumb, and a degrading one. Here, the Palestinian resistance rubbed the noses of the Israeli army despite their high-tech dumb bombs provided by their American backers.
Al Shujaiyia, which lies one kilometer away from the siege into Israel, holds bad memories for the Israeli army. Jewish soldiers know that, so do their superiors but the extreme government of Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to listen.
In Al Shujaiyia the Israeli were marred. Their nervous, trigger-happy soldiers killed three of the Israeli hostages back in December, 2023 under what is euphemistically-termed ‘friendly fire”. Despite the three opaqually waving white flags and shouting in Hebrew, they were shot point-blank many argue under the Israeli military Hannibal doctrine that states soldiers and hostages should be killed rather than taken alive.
Today Israeli ground troops invade the ruined town yet again, determined to get their pound of flesh and despite the rubble and the wreckage which they instituted.
There are no homes here, but people have refused to leave, making do with what they have, living in their bomb-crated homes. But this is another turn story in their “war life”.
The Israeli army says its invading the beleaguered neighborhood once again because of their intelligence sources saying there are Palestinian resistance fighters here. But this is a surprise. These fighters never left and reformed their strength with maneuverability and slickness.
The Palestinian resistance in Gaza today is a broad movement: They include Al-Quds Brigade, Al-Qassam Brigade, Al-Aqsa Brigade, and the PFLP and are fighting the Israeli occupier in tandem with strategic moves to beat the enemy.
In reality, Al Shujaiyia has always remained resistance territory. It has been the grave of Israeli soldiers. But the Israeli army like to say that as a public relations exercise to give the feeling they are winning. They said that in Jabalia, in Beit Lahia, in Al Zaytoon and in Khan Younis, stressing they entered these places, ended the presence of the Hamas resistance there, and left.
If they quashed the Palestinian resistance there, why would they enter these places many times after?
In the first hours of their entry in Al Shujaiyia, Israeli troops faced at least 10 military operations against them by Hamas and Saraya Al Quds fighters.
The drainage of Israeli troop and hardware losses continued with news of one Merkava 4-tank blown up as well as troop carrier not to say anything about the IED planted bombs on the ashphalt carved Baghdad Road.
Like elsewhere, the army is hoping for victory here, but there seems to be a deluge of Palestinian fighters coming from below grounds to continue the fight against the Israeli occupation invaders. In Al Shujaiyia they will have no respite.
Once historians sit and write the history of this war, they will find Al Shujaiyia has been the toughest for the Israeli army despite the enormous levels of destruction where the fight has been between vastly unequal opponents: Guerilla groups trained in the art of urban warfare versus an unwieldly Israeli army beset by organizational and logistical movements but deadly just the same.
In this war it has been the Palestinian fighters in jeans and home-made missiles from pipe tubes that proved their worthiness over the Israeli enemy.
The entry of Israeli troops however, has caused havoc on the population of Al Shujaiyia which has been a usual affair in this war as civilians have suffered the most. Up till till now they managed to stay in their wrecked homes but no more with reports of hundreds leaving their neighborhood to an even bleaker future.
Its a vicious war machine after nine months of bloody mayhem and conflict. The killings continue, the bombardment never stops and the injured, the lucky few are dragged from under the rubble while thousands are eaten alive by mother earth. At least 15 people were killed in the first few hours of troops entering the neighborhood.
As usual Israeli troops – and they know it – will not be able to get to the resistance fighters. All the Israeli army will be doing – and this is a credit to their already soured professionalism – is create more death, injury, displacement among the civilian population.
Saleem Ayoub Quna
