Haniyeh: Operation al-Quds Sword opened new chapter in fight against Israel

Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement says Operation al-Quds Sword, which was launched last May in defense of Palestinians in occupied al-Quds, opened a new chapter in the fight against the occupying regime of Israel.

Ismail Haniyeh made the remarks in a ceremony held on Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of the operation, saying, “It was Gaza and its resistance [groups] that drew the sword out of its sheath and targeted the deepest part of the regime.”

“[Operation] al-Quds Sword was a turning point in the fight against the Zionist enemy and opened a new and different chapter [in that fight]. It was a comprehensive and multidimensional battle, whose impacts are not limited to Palestine, but spread to the entire region and even affect international community,” Haniyeh said.

The Hamas leader added that the initiative that the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and other resistance groups undertook by launching Operation al-Quds Sword “shattered the Zionist enemy’s security theory.”

With the operation, he said, resistance groups brought the war into the Israeli-occupied territories and targeted every inch of the occupied land with their intelligence operations as well as their missiles and drones.

“[Operation] al-Quds Sword introduced new elements to the balance of strategic power of the Palestinian nation,” he said, adding that the operation unified the Palestinian nation and removed geographical barriers inside ancient Palestine.

Israel waged its latest war on Gaza on May 10 last year, but it was faced with a strong reaction from the Gaza-based resistance groups, particularly Hamas, which launched thousands of rockets into the Israeli-occupied territories in response.

Hamas says settler calls for demolition of Dome of Rock ‘playing with fire’, will backfire

Hamas says a far-right Israeli group’s call for demolition of the Dome of Rock in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is “playing with fire” and will backfire.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Haniyeh warned Israel about organizing another parade, the so-called flag march, by far-right Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied East al-Quds.

“On no account must they be allowed to desecrate al-Aqsa Mosque, or [assault] Palestinians on the streets in al-Quds, the West Bank, and Palestinian territories occupied in 1948,” Haniyeh warned.

The so-called flag march was originally scheduled to be held on May 10, but Israeli right-wing groups shelved the controversial parade after the Israeli police refused to authorize it and Hamas warned of the consequences.

Nonetheless, the Israeli right-wingers reached an agreement with the Israeli public security minister Omer Bar-Lev to let the show roll in the occupied holy city on May 29.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the parade, saying the Israeli decision is provocative, aggressive, and an integral part of the open war against al-Quds, its citizens, and its sanctities.

It added that the decision would result in violations, provocations, crimes, and deliberate sabotage of efforts to calm the situation across the occupied territories.

Recently, there has been a sheer escalation of atrocities by the Israeli regime against Palestinian worshipers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the holy occupied city of al-Quds.

Outraged by the Israeli barbarity, Palestinian resistance groups have intensified their operations throughout the occupied territories.

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