THE head of the political bureau of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, said yesterday that the Palestinian revolution is on the ‘verge of a great victory’, following its surprise and successful offensive against Israeli-occupied territories.
Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks in a televised speech on Saturday, after Palestinian fighters launched their biggest operation against the occupying regime for many years and crossed the Gaza fence into Israeli-occupied cities, with hundreds of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip itself.
‘We are on the verge of a great victory and a clear conquest on the Gaza front,’ Haniyeh said, adding that the battle has moved into the heart of the ‘Zionist entity’.
He added: ‘Enough is enough, the cycle of intifada uprisings and revolutions in the battle to liberate our Palestinian land and our prisoners languishing in Israeli occupation prisons must be completed.’
The Palestinian revolution has launched its biggest operation against Israel in years, in a surprise offensive that combined fighters crossing the fence into Israeli occupied cities, with a heavy barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip.
The top Hamas official further noted that the resistance group has already warned that ‘it will not remain silent about what is happening in al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the al-Aqsa Mosque, even if the entire world keeps silent on these insults and adversarial intentions’.
He also said the latest operation would soon inspire other resistance groups in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere, urging all Palestinians to participate in this battle, which he said will end with victory.
Haniyeh continued to warn the Arab countries that have moved to normalise their relations with Israel in recent years that the occupying regime cannot bring them security.
‘We say to all countries, including our Arab brothers, that this entity, which cannot protect itself in the face of resistors, cannot provide you with any protection,’ he said.
‘All the normalisation agreements that you signed with that entity cannot resolve this (Palestinian) conflict,’ he added.
Earlier in the day, Hamas resistance fighters broke out of the fences separating Gaza and the illegally occupied territories and infiltrated a number of Israeli towns and settlements. This advance was accompanied by a heavy barrage of rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said more than 7,000 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, declaring it had started ‘Operation al-Aqsa Storm’.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has also said its fighters have joined the operation as Hamas called on Palestinians everywhere to fight and on resistance groups in Lebanon to join the fighting against Israel.
The operation came a day after Israeli forces attacked hundreds of Palestinians attending the funeral procession of a young Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, injuring over 50 people. According to Israeli media, at least 600 Israelis have been killed and over 1,100 injured following the large-scale operation.
Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, has also said that ‘Operation al-Aqsa Storm’ is in its first stage.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement said yesterday that it had fired shells and guided missiles toward Israeli-occupied territories, in the aftermath of the successful surprise operation by Gaza-based Palestinian fighters against the regime.
In a statement released yesterday, Hezbollah said it had targeted the Radar, Zabdin, and Ruwaysat Al-Alam sites in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms.
‘The martyr commander Hajj Imad Mughniyeh groups in the Islamic Resistance attacked … three Zionist occupation sites,’ the statement read adding: ‘The attacks were carried out on the path to liberate what remains occupied of our Lebanese land and in solidarity with the victorious Palestinian resistance, the struggling and patient Palestinian people.’
Hezbollah praised the Hamas offensive, and urged the Arab masses to press forward to win the struggle and to move towards what will be a historic victory for the Arab peoples and a major defeat for world imperialism.