The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has strongly condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the ongoing Israeli aggression is doomed to failure due to steadfastness and resistance of the Palestinian nation.
“The resistance front will remain the protective shield of our people. The ongoing aggression is bound to fail in the face of our people’s revolution, steadfastness and resistance,” Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, said in a statement on Monday morning. It came after the Israeli military carried out a new round of airstrikes on the besieged Palestinian coastal enclave.
“The Zionist bombardment of Gaza coincided with acts of aggression against Nablus and al-Quds, confirming that we are facing a campaign of hostilities against our entire nation. We salute the fighters of the al-Qassam Brigades, who repelled the Zionist enemy’s raids on the Gaza Strip, and confused the Occupation army and its settlers,” Qassem said.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it targeted in the early hours of Monday morning a Hamas underground facility, alleging that “the resistance movement used for the production of rocket materials in the central Gaza Strip.” It further claimed that the airstrikes were in response to a rocket launch from the Palestinian enclave on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, rocket warning sirens blared in southern Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, including Sderot and Kibbutz Nir Am. Alerts also sounded in Kibbutz Ruhama, located about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) east of Sderot.
The Palestinian Shehab news agency reported that Israeli military aircraft launched 10 raids on a “resistance site” west of Gaza City. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The report added that the strikes led to huge explosions, which caused material damage to residential buildings.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed a young Palestinian man during a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said, only a few hours after another young Palestinian died from wounds sustained earlier in the day when Israeli military forces raided the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian media outlets identified the victim as Amir Bustami, saying he lost his life after the ambulance crew and medical staff could not revive him. According to a local resident, a large number of Israeli troops stormed Nablus in a pre-dawn raid, and surrounded a residential building on Sufyan Street, amid heavy gunfire and sound of explosions.
Director of the PRCS’s Ambulance and Emergency Center in Nablus, Ahmed Jibril, said in a statement that ambulance crews transferred five Palestinians to Rafidia Hospital, who were wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on them.
Informed sources also said the Israeli troops arrested two young men after they were shot in the vicinity of the besieged house on Sufyan Street. Dozens of people also suffered breathing difficulties due to the inhalation of tear gas.
On Sunday, fourteen-year-old Qusai Radwan Waked died after being taken to a hospital along with a number of other Palestinian youths who were injured during a raid by Israeli forces earlier in the day, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The ministry noted that Waked had been “seriously wounded in the abdomen by live fire from the Occupation” forces in Jenin.
