Islamic Jihad vows retaliation after Israeli forces kill seven Palestinians near Ariha

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has vowed that it will not back down from their struggle against Israeli occupation forces, after Israeli media reported that at least 7 Palestinian resistance fighters were killed in an Israeli raid on Aqabat Jabr camp near Jericho.

Israeli media reported on Monday that the occupation forces are holding the bodies of the 7 martyrs, the Palestinian Information Center said, adding that the residents of the camp confirmed that they did not find the bodies of the martyrs.

The archaeological city of Ariha (Jericho) and its surroundings have been under a tight Israeli siege as the regime’s forces set up roadblocks and checkpoints at the city’s entrances and searched vehicles and check IDs of passengers, causing unsustainable delays and traffic jams.

On Sunday, the Aqabat Jabr refugee camp battalion of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, declared the beginning of three days of rage over the Israeli regime’s tight siege and incursions that have been taking place since 9 days.

On this note, the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, issued a statement saying “the al-Qassam Brigades will continue its operations with all the revolutionaries until the [Israeli] invaders are defeated.”

The statement said that “the ongoing killings carried out by the [Israeli] enemy in the West Bank will have disastrous repercussions on the Israeli regime,” adding that “all international or regional interventions will not succeed in stopping the revolutionary tide of our people, and the enemy will not enjoy calm.”

In turn, the spokesman for the Islamic Jihad Movement, Tareq Ezzedin, said the new crime committed by the criminal Israeli occupation at dawn today, Monday, against the Palestinian people and resistance fighters in Aqabat Jabr, will not terrorize them.”

“The occupation has been established on our land since the occupation of Palestine through killing, destruction and terrorism. It is an entity that only understands the language of force, and our Palestinian people are alive and will not back down from their resistance until they [Israel] are defeated and forced to pull out from the entire soil of Palestine.”

The Israeli blockade on Ariha was imposed following an alleged shooting attempt at an Israeli-run restaurant located outside the West Bank city. No one was hurt in the purported incident, but the Israeli military alleges the shooter escaped into Ariha.

The development comes less than a day after Israeli forces killed an unarmed Palestinian man in the West Bank.

Over the past months, Israel has ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and cities throughout the occupied territories. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Palestinians have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

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