Hamas: Israeli assassinations will not deter Palestinian resistance front

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has censured the assassination of five Palestinians, including four fighters from the group, in an overnight raid in the occupied West Bank, emphasizing that such targeted killings won’t ever deter the resistance front.

In a statement on Sunday, senior Hamas official Abdul-Hakim Hanini congratulated the families of the fallen resistance fighters on the heroic achievements their sons have obtained, as well as the noble sacrifices that they have made concerning defense of their homeland, sanctities, honor and dignity.

“We are telling the criminal Zionist enemy that no matter how many heroes of us it would assassinate, thousands of others will emerge instead, continue the path of resistance, and force out the occupiers,” Hanini stated.

The high-ranking Hamas official emphasized that the Israeli targeted killings, assaults and arrest campaigns will not manage to undermine the Palestinian nation’s determination, noting that Palestinians are fairly familiar with the path of resistance in order to liberate their revered lands and restore inalienable rights.

‘Decapitated body’ among victims of Israeli raid on West Bank town

The Israeli regime’s forces kill at least five Palestinians in a raid against a residential building in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank.

Hanini noted that the occupying Israeli regime is under the illusion that it can subdue the Palestinian resistance front through assassination of Hamas members.

“Such sacrifices will only strengthen and empower the Axis of Resistance. Thousands of new fighters will accordingly enlist to complete the journey,” he pointed out.

Hamas confirmed that four of the men killed during the Saturday raid in Deir al-Ghusun town, located eight kilometers (4.9 miles) northeast of the city of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank, were from its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said their bodies had been taken by the Israeli military.

There was no information about the fifth man, whose body was too disfigured for immediate identification, the ministry said.

The Israeli military announced in a statement that an Israeli officer from a special police unit was wounded during the raid.

It further alleged that the Palestinian men were responsible for the death a reservist soldier and wounding a police officer in an attack last November, and also carried out a car bombing attack in April which wounded two people including a soldier.

Since early last year, Israel has intensified raids in the occupied West Bank, which were accelerated after Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7.

Nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or extremist Jewish settlers since the war began.

 At least 34,683 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the nearly past seven months. Another 78,018 individuals have sustained injuries as well.

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