The head of the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza, Yehya al-Sinwar, says its fighters have inflicted heavy losses of life and equipment on Israeli forces in the conflict.

In a letter to the chairman of the Hamas politburo, Ismail Haniya, and other members of the committee, al-Sinwar spoke of a bitter, brutal and unprecedented battle against Israeli forces being fought by the Qassam Brigades, the organization’s armed wing.

He asserted that the Qassam Brigades had attacked at least 5,000 Israeli soldiers, killing a third, seriously injuring another third and permanently incapacitating another third.

These figures clearly contradict the Israeli army’s figures, according to which more than 150 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the current conflict.

Al-Sinwar also wrote that 750 Israeli military vehicles had been completely or partially destroyed. The Israeli army does not provide any information about this.

Hamas’s Gaza chief concluded by claiming that the Qassam Brigades had “crushed” Israeli troops and were in the process of decimating them. The armed wing of Hamas would not submit to Israeli conditions for and end to the armed hostilities, he added.

Large parts of the Gaza Strip have been destroyed during the Israeli offensive. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 20,400 people have been killed. A large proportion of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the coastal strip have had to flee their homes.