Hamas’s military wing says its forces made a ‘global mockery’ of Israel

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas terror group’s military wing, declared on Monday that Israel bears full responsibility for what it described as a “dangerous crime” in the southern Gaza Strip and contended that its forces had made a “global mockery” of the Israeli intelligence apparatus.

On Sunday, Israeli special forces participated in an operation deep inside the Gaza Strip that sparked hours of clashes and left one senior IDF officer dead, the army said on Monday.

Six Qassam fighters and a member of another terrorist group were killed, according to Hamas.

The special forces were in Gaza “for intelligence purposes, not for an assassination or a kidnapping,” IDF Spokesperson Ronen Manelis told Army Radio.

“IDF troops that operated last night in the Gaza Strip became trapped in a highly complex situation. The soldiers acted heroically, hit those who threatened them and extracted themselves to Israeli territory,” Manelis said in a separate statement.

The Qassam Brigades suggested that Israel would pay a price for its actions.

“The criminal enemy bears full responsibility for this dangerous crime and its consequences,” the Qassam Brigades said in a statement posted on its official website. “If God wills, the blood of our righteous martyrs will not be wasted.”

The Qassam Brigades also belittled Israel’s intelligence services, asserting that its forces made it into “a global mockery.”

“The resistance taught the enemy a harsh lesson and made its intelligence body a global mockery,” the Hamas military wing added in its statement. “Even though it mobilized all these forces for the failed operation, the resistance was able to overpower it and force it to flee.”

In a separate statement Sunday night, Hamas’s military wing said Israeli forces entered an area three kilometers deep into Gaza in a civilian car and assassinated Qassam Brigades commander Nour Barakeh.

In Monday’s statement, however, the Qassam Brigades said the armed clash that took place between its fighters and the Israeli forces led to Barakeh’s death, without saying he was assassinated.

Barakeh, one of the six Hamas members who was killed on Sunday, was a field commander in the Qassam Brigades, according to Hamas’s military wing.

Barakeh was 37, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, and had written a master’s thesis at the Islamic University of Gaza titled “Negligence in Jihadist Action.”

When asked about Barakeh, a Shin Bet spokesman said there are “no details to provide about him.”

In Monday’s statement, the Qassam Brigades said that even though Israeli aircraft carried out a number of strikes in Gaza to provide cover for its forces to return to Israeli territory, its fighters pursued them until the border fence between the coastal enclave and southern Israel.

Hamas’s military wing also said that an Israeli aircraft fired at the car its forces had been driving in Gaza in an attempt to do away with “the traces of the crime.”

On Monday morning, pictures shared on Twitter showed the burnt remains of the car, which the Qassam Brigades said the Israeli forces were driving.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a terror group in Gaza, said that 29-year-old Khaled Quweider, one of the seven killed by Israel in southern Gaza on Sunday, was a member of its military wing and added Israel will pay a price for its actions.

“The enemy will pay the price of its crimes,” the Popular Resistance Committees said in a statement posted on its website.