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IOF troops attack Zaitun area in Gaza, Qassam repels attack [ 12/02/2008 - 09:28 AM ] GAZA, (PIC)-- The IOF troops at dawn Tuesday advanced into east of the Zaitun neighborhood in the Gaza Strip where they were met with ferocious resistance by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. In a communiqué received by the PIC, the Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters engaged in armed clashes with the invading IOF troops and fired 73 mortar shells and seven homemade rockets at their armored vehicles, pointing out that Israeli ambulances rushed to the areas to transfer the Israeli casualties. For his part, the PIC reporter said that Qassam fighters also fired an anti-personnel RPG at the invading IOF troops in the neighborhood, adding that the clashes are still raging between the Qassam and IOF troops. The Brigades added that the intensity of its fighters' gunfire caused great panic and confusion in the ranks of the invading IOF troops, pointing out that the Israeli enemy will hide its losses as usual. In another development, a group of the Qassam fighters miraculously survived after an Israeli warplane fired at least two missiles at their jeep in the Shaboura refugee camp in Rafah. In retaliation, the Qassam air defense unit in Gaza fired its anti-aircraft machine guns at Israeli warplanes and forced them back. For its part, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the PFLP, took the credit for firing on Monday noon an upgraded rocket on the strategic city of Ashkelon and two rockets on the Israeli Sderot settlement and the western Negev. In a number of communiqués received by the PIC, the Brigades stated that its fighters along with the Fatiheen army affiliated with the Aqsa Brigades on Monday morning managed to shoot dead an Israeli soldier standing beside his armored vehicle in the eastern cemetery and they fired two mortar shells on the Israeli Netiv Ha`asara settlement. In a communiqué received by the PIC, the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, claimed responsibility for firing on Monday evening a homemade rocket on the Ashkelon city, stating that this operation was carried out in retaliation to the Israeli crimes and incursions.