A SENIOR Hamas official says the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement has worked out a major defensive plan in the face of the Israeli onslaught, stressing that the unison among resistance factions during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm left Israeli military commanders baffled.
‘We are sure that we will emerge victorious out of this war.
‘We assure our Palestinian compatriots that the resistance front has the necessary might to free all Palestinian prisoners,’ Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, told Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Tuesday.
He added that the Israeli military has failed to achieve any gains on the ground despite relentless air and ground strikes against the Gaza Strip.
Baraka noted that the occupying Tel Aviv regime launched the ground offensive into Gaza after Operation Al-Aqsa Storm caught its military and intelligence services completely off guard, yet failed dismally to attain any of its declared objectives, including the destruction of Hamas, release of Israeli captives, and permanent displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
The top Hamas official says Israel is ‘sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp of Gaza’, stressing that the occupying regime failed to achieve a single victory after 60 days of war in the besieged enclave.
‘The steadfastness of Palestinians and bravery of resistance fighters, who inflicted a lot of casualties on the enemy’s army, ruined the Zionists’ plans.
‘Additionally, the drastic change in the world public opinion exposed the true nature of the Zionist entity, and flat-out lies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden,’ the senior Hamas official said.
He underscored that the engagement of Israel on several fronts, especially in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, helped the Palestinian resistance front and threw the usurping regime into confusion.
‘The army of the Zionist regime is now helpless and in a state of erosion in southern Lebanon, and against Yemeni Armed Forces who prevent the passage of Israeli ships through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait,’ Baraka said.
He stated that the combination of these factors forced Israel to agree to Palestinian resistance groups’ conditions and accept a temporary ceasefire that was extended several times.
‘The Israeli military has so far reaped nothing on the ground during the second round of its aggression.
‘Resistance fighters have destroyed more than 50 armoured military vehicles and killed a large number of Israeli soldiers,’ he said.
The Hamas official underlined that Israeli settlers are pushing Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire and stop the war.
‘All Zionists have realised that Netanyahu is prolonging this war for the sake of his personal interests.
‘They insist that he must stand trial for the defeat suffered as a result of the Operation Al-Aqsa Storm once the military campaign in Gaza winds down.
‘We are sure that we will win this war as resistance fights are bravely fighting off enemy forces, and still have many surprises for them,’ he said.
‘The resistance front has the power to free all Palestinian prisoners,’ Baraka concluded.
Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7th after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupied territories in response to the regime’s intensified violence against Palestinians.
More than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed in the US-backed war, most of them women and children.
- A senior official of the Hamas resistance movement says Israel is ‘sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp of Gaza’, stressing that the occupying regime failed to achieve a single victory after 60 days of the war in the besieged enclave.
Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ top representative in Lebanon, made the remarks in a press conference in the capital Beirut on Tuesday, noting that the resistance group is ‘well prepared’ to fight no matter how long the Israeli war is going to last.
‘After 60 days of war, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his military couldn’t achieve a single military or political victory. It’s a dream that will never come true to him nor to his military.
‘No matter how long the war would last, we are well-prepared,’ Hamdan said.
‘Over 75 years this enemy has never claimed victory against our people.
‘Our people have always been resisting and therefore they can never win against Hamas and they can never claim victory against our Palestinian people and here I would like to confirm that Netanyahu and his war staff are sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp of Gaza,’ he added.
Hamdan also hailed the fighters of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, who are defending the Palestinian people’s rights and their land, saying ‘every moment they are making the enemy sustain injuries and losses and making Gaza a cemetery for such an aggressor’.
The military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says its fighters have killed ten Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.
Israel waged the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7th after Hamas launched an operation against the occupied territories on that day in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
Over 17,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israel’s aggression on Gaza during the past two months.
The top Hamas official went on to say that Israel’s invasion of Gaza is just a ‘thirst for blood’ that will go unquenched, adding that the real objective of the occupying regime is to eliminate the Palestinian people and their cause which is ‘an impossibility’.
He also predicted that Netanyahu’s regime will soon fall because of the Gaza war, adding that the long-serving premier will eventually be tried as a war criminal.
Hamdan further stated that Netanyahu is ‘responsible’ for the lives of Israeli war prisoners in Gaza, adding that his goals in the enclave are ‘unattainable’.
He also said the Israeli regime failed to release a single prisoner of war except according to our terms, emphasising that there will be ‘no negotiations or a prisoner swap’ before the Israeli assault on Gaza comes to an end.
Mohamad Elmasry, a media studies professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that Hamas is ‘still largely intact’ despite Israel’s stated goal of eliminating the resistance group.
The situation is rapidly deteriorating into possibly the worst mass-killing of civilians, unprecedented within living memory.
• ‘The level of human suffering is intolerable,’ says the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) President Mirjana Spoljaric, as Israel resumed its air and ground strikes on Gaza in full force.
Spoljaric, who arrived in the besieged territory on Tuesday, called for the protection of civilians, whom she said ‘have no safe place to go in Gaza’.
The Red Cross chief also noted that ‘with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible’.
‘The last week provided a small degree of humanitarian respite, a positive glimpse of humanity that raised hopes around the world that a path to reduced suffering could now be found,’ she said, referring to a week-long ceasefire that came to an end last Friday.
Spoljaric said the purpose of her visit to Gaza was ‘to advance efforts that alleviate the desperate humanitarian situation.’
‘I will convey my deep concern for the plight of civilians and underlie the ICRC’s utmost commitment to doing everything we can to ease their suffering,’ she added.
UN officials have sounded the alarm once more, saying there are ‘no safe zones in Gaza’ while the situation is getting worse by the hour.
The Red Cross, however, has been under fire for not providing adequate help to Palestinians since Israel launched its brutal war on Gaza on October 7th.
Israel’s military said last Sunday it had carried out around 10,000 air strikes since the war started.
Ever since, the regime has killed over 17,000 people, 70 per cent of whom were women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
