Battle of Shuja'iyya | |||||||
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Part of the siege of Gaza City during the Israel–Hamas war | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Israel |
Hamas Palestinian Islamic Jihad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Yitzhak Ben-Bashat † Tomer Greenberg †[3] |
Emad Abdullah Ali Qariqa †[4][5] Wissam Farhat † | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
16 soldiers killed[6][7] 1 Namer destroyed |
Per Israel:[6] 935+ fighters killed | ||||||
3 Israeli civilians killed[8] |
The Battle of Shuja'iyya was a military engagement of the ongoing Israel-Hamas War between the Israeli Defense Forces of Israel and Hamas. The latter's allies, namely the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also took part in the fighting. During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Shuja'iyya was the last district in Gaza City that had not been subject to an Israeli ground invasion, and as a result many Palestinians who had not been able to evacuate south had sought refuge in the district. Despite this, the Israel Defense Forces had shelled and bombarded targets in Shuja'iyya for weeks before invading on December 4. On the 26th of December, Israel withdrew from Shuja'iyya, announcing that the local Hamas battalion had been defeated. Despite this, militants continued to attack Israeli forces within the town.