Al-Quds bus shooting ‘natural response to occupying Israeli regime’s daily crimes against Palestinians: Hamas

Palestinian resistance groups have described the shooting attack in occupied al-Quds as “a natural response” to the Israeli regime’s daily crimes against the Palestinians, calling it a "heroic act".

The attack which occurred just outside one of the gates of the occupied Old City of al-Quds on early Sunday left at least nine Israeli settlers injured. According to the reports by the Israeli media two of the victims are in serious condition. 

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, branded the incident as “heroic” and said it was “a natural response to the Occupation’s and Zionist settlers’ daily crimes against our people, our country, major Muslim and Christian sites, and constant desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque,” Arabic-language al-Jazeera TV news network reported. 

Barhoum added, “This heroic and unique operation shows that the resistance front will press ahead with its measures in al-Quds. Our nation knows very well that resistance is the only way to safeguard the Palestinian land and holy places, and can inflict enormous costs on the invaders and thwart their plots.”

“The Tel Aviv regime's repressive measures against local residents of [occupied] al-Quds will not weaken their resolve, but will greatly motivate resistance fighters to intensify their struggle,” the Hamas spokesman pointed out.

Islamic Jihad’s reaction

Tariq Izz al-Din, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad's West Bank branch, also lauded the al-Quds operation.

“We in the Islamic Jihad praise the heroic operation in al-Quds and emphasize that it is in line with the ongoing resistance against the occupying regime.

“The al-Quds operation showed that occupiers have no place in our land and will not feel safe as long as the resistance continues. The occupying regime kills our people on a daily basis, and must pay the price for its crimes against our nation, which are being perpetrated from Gaza to Jenin and Nablus,” Izz al-Din said.

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He added, “The heroic operation was carried out in the heart of the occupied al-Quds. It is a concrete proof that the city will maintain its Islamic, Arab and Palestinian identity, and all Judaization attempts and crimes of the Zionist regime will not change the fact that it belongs to Palestinians.”

“This operation took place at the right time and place and in the aftermath of the recent aggression of the Zionist regime on the Gaza Strip. It is the first reaction of our nation in the West Bank and al-Quds, and falls within the framework of the ‘Unity of Fronts and Fields’ equation,” the spokesperson for Islamic Jihad's West Bank branch continued.

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Izz al-Din also stated that Palestinian retaliatory operations are strongly indicative of the dynamism and preparedness of Palestinians to confront Israeli invaders, and respond to their repeated aggressions wherever they could.

Moreover, the spokesman for the Palestinian Resistance Committees (PRC), Mohamed al-Barim, hailed the “brave” al-Quds operation, and termed it “a direct response to the Zionist enemy’s crimes in the Gaza Strip, Nablus, Jenin, and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories.”

Barim also described the operation as “a stinging blow to the military and security apparatus of the Zionist regime.”

“The brave and heroic operation in al-Quds conveys the message to the enemy that the Palestinian nation and resistance fighters will continue to tread the path of struggle decisively,” the PRC spokesman highlighted.

Last weekend, Israeli aircraft mounted an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting.

In response to the airstrikes Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up .

Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 members of Islamic Jihad, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the air attacks, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire.

A day after the cease-fire, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

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