RESISTANCE groups in Palestine and across the region are continuing their operations against Israel and its Western backers amid the regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed the lives of more than 22,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
The operations carried out by the Palestinian and regional resistance groups on Thursday, December 28, are as follows:
Qassam Brigades’ operations on December 28:
- Targeted a bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 shell in the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip;
- Targeted seven vehicles with Al-Yassin 105 shells and ‘Shuath’ explosives in the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj areas in Gaza City;
- Destroyed a military vehicle with an Al-Yassin 105 shell east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip;
- Targeted a tank with a ‘Shuath’ explosive east of Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
- Targeted a Merkava tank with an ‘Al-Yassin 105’ shell southeast of the Bureij refugee camp.
- Targeted a tank with an ‘Al-Yassin 105’ shell, causing several explosions inside it, and launched mortar shells east of Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip;
- Targeted five Merkava tanks with ‘Al-Yassin 105’ shells east of Khan Yunis;
- Targeted concentrations of soldiers and vehicles in the areas of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, with mortar shells;
- Detonated a ‘Ra’adiya’ anti-personnel device among an infantry force penetrating the Khuza’a area east of Khan Yunis, causing deaths and injuries;
- Targeted forces gathered in the Tallat al-Rayyis area, northeast of the central region, with heavy-calibre mortar shells;
- Destroyed a troop carrier with an ‘Al-Yassin 105’ shell east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip;
- Targeted a Merkava tank with an ‘Al-Yassin 105’ shell in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, setting it ablaze;
- Shot down a Skylark-2 drone that was on an intelligence mission north of Tal al-Zaatar in the northern Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah’s operations on December 28:
Eastern sector:
1 At 15:30, the Al-Sammaqa site in Shebaa was targeted with appropriate weapons;
2 At 15:35, an Israeli military vehicle was targeted inside the Ramot Naftali barracks with appropriate weapons;
3 At 16:00, a gathering of Israeli soldiers was targeted at the Honen Barracks with appropriate weapons;
4 At 16:00, the Honin barracks was targeted with appropriate weapons.
Western sector:
1 At 16:00, enemy artillery positions in Khirbet Maar were targeted with appropriate weapons;
2 At 16:00, a deployment of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Mitat Barracks was targeted with appropriate weapons.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Hamas has informed the Islamic Republic that it has sufficient capabilities to continue the confrontation with Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip for months.
Speaking in the city of Qom last Thursday, Amir-Abollahian said that more than 80 days had passed since the war on Gaza, but ‘the Zionist regime has not achieved anything’.
‘According to Hamas commanders, only 14% of the resistance capacity has been damaged so far,’ the foreign minister said.
And the length of Hamas tunnels today is more than the area of Gaza, and drone manufacturing workshops have not been closed for even an hour since Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7th.
‘Hamas captured valuable security and military forces of the Zionist regime on the first day of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,’ he added.
The minister also touched on the rising popularity of the resistance.
‘After the Al-Aqsa Storm, more than 70% of the people of Gaza took up arms and came to the battlefield,’ he said. ‘After breaking the wall, all the Palestinian youth and people came to the arena and defended their country.
‘The Zionist regime’, meanwhile, ‘has changed its goal in Gaza several times, but has failed,’ he said.
Amir-Abdollahian also touched on the United States’ all-out support for the Israeli invasion of Gaza and Washington’s repeated messages to Iran that it did not seek an expansion of the war, and asking the Islamic Republic to help prevent a spillover of the war.
‘At every stage, they were given a strong response and the establishment responded to them at the official level,’ he said.
‘America is lying when it says it is not seeking to expand the war… if the Americans were not looking to expand the war, they would not be delivering their equipment and weapons to Israel day and night.
‘Today, American weapons are arriving in Tel Aviv from all the bases in the region without stop. In addition, some equipment also arrives directly from America in Cyprus and goes to Tel Aviv from Cyprus.’
Also at the United Nations, a proposal was made to use Iran’s relations with the resistance for post-war plans in Gaza, ‘but we declared that the Palestinian people should be the decision-makers themselves.’
Amir-Abollahian also pointed out the emergence of new powers in the world, especially the resistance groups.
‘The emerging powers do not mean only China’s economy. Today, resistance has become a power,’ the minister said, referring to anti-US groups in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
However, he reserved his highest praise for the Yemenis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah who have ‘acted very bravely in this war.
‘Today, Yemen has created a new legal regime in the Red Sea,’ the minister said, referring to the country’s interception and targeting of Israeli ships and vessels bound for Israeli ports in Bab el-Mandeb.
‘Today, the leaders of the resistance have reached a high level of foresight and understanding and have shown this in the recent war.’
Amir-Abdollahian also underlined ‘many measures taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran in creating the Axis of Resistance to ensure security in the region.
‘Today there is no need for the Islamic Republic to take any action,’ he said.
The developments are part of evolving concepts and mechanisms in the world, where United States hegemony is on the wane.
‘One development is that the exercise of American hegemonic power is weakening day by day. Today, a resistance group has destroyed the army that considered itself the third military power in the world,’ he said, referring to Hamas’ October 7th Al Aqsa Storm operation.
‘Today, in the White House, the issue is being raised as to why support for Israel is to such an extent that Israel’s defeat is considered America’s defeat.’
Amir-Abdollahian touched on another positive development, saying after normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran has commenced fence-mending with Egypt.
‘The recent contact between the Iranian and Egyptian presidents was in this context,’ he said, referring to the first phone call between Ebrahim Raeisi and Fattah el-Sisi to discuss recent developments in Gaza and the prospect of restoring diplomatic ties between their two countries.
- Yemen’s defence minister has warned trans-regional military forces against offering support to the Israeli regime and securing passage of Israel-owned ships or vessels bound to Israeli ports in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea waters.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony of Yemeni cadets in the country’s western coastal city of Hudaydah on Thursday, Major General Mohammed al-Atifi warned such regional forces ‘against various movements in support of the Zionist entity in the maritime theatre that spans between the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea.’
He noted that Yemeni Armed Forces ‘are closely and rigorously monitoring the movement of American, British and French military forces in both bodies of water.’
He underscored that the Ansarullah resistance movement, the Sana’a-based National Salvation Government, the Yemeni nation, and security forces will stand unwaveringly by the side of the Palestinians until they liberate all their occupied lands, and establish a sovereign independent state with holy al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.
Ansarullah insists that the international waterways are safe and secure for all shipping, except for Israeli ships or those heading towards the occupied territories.
In a statement last Tuesday, Yemen’s Armed Forces announced they’d targeted a ship as it was heading towards the occupied territories, as well as regions deep inside those areas in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who are subject to an unrelenting genocidal Israeli war.
The Yemeni Navy conducted a missile strike against the vessel, which it identified as ‘commercial ship MSC United.’
The statement read: ‘The targeting of the ship came after the crew, for the third time, ignored calls from the naval forces, as well as repeated fiery warning messages.’
They also reported striking the port of Eilat in the southernmost part of the occupied territories as well as ‘other areas in occupied Palestine’.
The attacks, the statement said, were carried out ‘in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people who continue to face killing, destruction, siege, and starvation.’
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7th after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The sanctions come after several US allies officially withdrew their participation from a controversial alliance which Washington seeks to build with the aim of supporting Israel.
The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed at least 21,320 people, most of them women and children. Another 55,660 individuals have been wounded.
Reports revealed that Israeli shipping companies have already decided to reroute their vessels in fear of attacks by Yemeni forces, who have also launched missile and drone attacks on targets in the Israeli-occupied territories following the regime’s aggression on Gaza.
