The Israeli army expelled a combat battalion commander and his deputy after they ran away following an ambush by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas.
The episode took place during the Israeli military invasion of northern Gaza, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot reported on Monday.
The Israeli army’s decision was justified on the basis that the battalion, supervised by the two officers, ‘withdrew’ from its position during a ground maneuver.
The newspaper reported that the officers, along with dozens of their subordinates, asserted that they decided to withdraw because the unit did not receive military support or air cover when confronting dozens of fighters from the Al-Qassam Brigades during the ambush.
In a just-released video, Al-Qassam fighters are seen attacking Israeli tanks and military vehicles in Gaza. The footage showed the military uniforms of several Israeli soldiers, their necklaces, and military equipment.
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The Israeli army stated that the sudden withdrawal resulted in events described as “unusual” and created a “severe crisis”, which prompted about half of the soldiers not to return to military service and fight in Gaza.
The newspaper reported that the soldiers of the company and the combat unit said that they did not receive support or air cover from the Israeli Air Force, when they fell into an ambush by Al-Qassam Brigades fighters.
“We entered a trapped area and many terrorists fired RPGs in our direction with relentless fire,” the soldiers of the company testified in the investigation, according to Yedioth Ahronot.
Accordingly, the military company retreated back in front of dozens of Palestinian fighters.
In a just-released video, Al-Qassam Brigades fighters are seen clashing with Israeli soldiers in the Juhr Al-Dik area east of the central #Gaza Strip.
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The newspaper’s military affairs correspondent, Yoav Zeitoun, quoted Israeli army officers as saying,
“Officers in the brigade admitted that the force was sent on a mission in a poor manner after being in another prolonged activity in the Gaza Strip without rest, and that the incident created a difficult atmosphere in the battalion.”
The newspaper also pointed out that since the beginning of the war on Gaza, the aforementioned battalion and combat unit were exposed to other serious events in October, which included the killing of an officer and the injury of other officers.
Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance movement #Hamas, said in a recorded message of which The Palestine Chronicle received a copy, that the Palestinian Resistance will respond to the massacres underway in #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/rlITGtB6FD
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“It should be noted that the battalion suffered other severe events in the last month.
Soldiers from other units are brought in to fill the gap (and) a crisis of confidence was created,” the Israeli army stated, according to Yedioth Ahronot.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
This is why every Army has Code of Conduct. How about the countries which refuse to help the Gazans? Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Hezboalah? Are they as weak as the Battalion Commander describe in the article?