Hamas, Gaza government stress Palestinians’ right to defend themselves

Hamas movement and the Palestinian government in Gaza held the Israeli occupation full responsibility for the current escalation, stressing that the Palestinian people has the right to defend itself.

Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri in a statement on Wednesday evening said that the occupation has been breaching the truce agreement through its daily crimes, the latest of which was the killing of six citizens in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and emphasized the Palestinian people’s right to defend itself.

Abu Zuhri called on the Arab states to put pressure on the occupation to stop its aggressive practices, and asked the Arab countries to halt the defamation campaign against the resistance.

The movement spokesman Fawzi Barhoum also held the Israeli government responsible for the deterioration of the situation, due to the series of abuses and assassinations it has been committing against the Palestinians, and warned of the consequences of committing new follies against the people in the Strip.

He called on the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation to immediately intervene to stop the deterioration of the situation in Gaza and halt any aggression against its residents.

For its part, the Palestinian government in Gaza emphasized the resistance’s right to defend its people, holding the occupation responsible for the repercussions of any escalation against the citizens in the Gaza Strip.

The government spokesman Ihab Ghussein said in a statement on his Facebook page on Wednesday evening that the Arab countries’ preoccupation with their internal affairs encouraged the Israeli occupation to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people.

He stressed that Israel is trying to impose a new policy on the ground, and warned of the repercussions of the violation of the truce agreement.

Ghussain also urged the Arab and Islamic countries and the international community to put pressure on the occupation to stop its aggression against the Palestinians.

For his part, Taher al-Nunu, media advisor to the prime minister in Gaza, said: “The enemy has been trying to exploit some changes (in the region) in order to impose new equations enabling it to compensate for its loss in the Battle of the Shale Stone, by tightening the siege and targeting the citizens in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Meanwhile, the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, has started since Wednesday afternoon firing dozens of rockets toward Israeli border sites and areas within the western Negev in the 1948 occupied territories, as part of its response to the recent escalation by the Israeli forces that killed 10 Palestinians in 24 hours.