GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian group Hamas, said Saturday that they ambushed Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al-Qassam said on Telegram that their fighters "lured an Israeli foot force into a tunnel that had been booby-trapped in advance and blew it up with members of the force, causing casualties."

It indicated that the operation took place in the "Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip."

There was no comment from the Israeli army on the Al-Qassam Brigades statement as of 12.17 p.m. local time (0917GMT).

There has been no response from the Israeli side to the statement, but they usually limit themselves to occasionally updating data on soldier casualties in the war on Gaza.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 38,900 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,600 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi