Top Hamas official: We have drawn up major defensive plan; over 50 Israeli armored vehicles destroyed

A senior Hamas official says the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement has worked out a major defensive plan in the face of the Israeli onslaught, stressing that the unison among resistance factions during Operation Al-Aqsa Storm left Israeli military commanders baffled.

“We are sure that we will emerge victorious out of this war. We assure our Palestinian compatriots that the resistance front has the necessary might to free all Palestinian prisoners,” Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, told Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on Tuesday.

He added that the Israeli military has failed to achieve any gains on the ground despite relentless air and ground strikes against the Gaza Strip.

Baraka noted that the occupying Tel Aviv regime launched the ground offensive into Gaza after Operation Al-Aqsa Storm caught its military and intelligence services completely off guard, yet failed dismally to attain any of its declared objectives, including the destruction of Hamas, release of Israeli captives, and permanent displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.