Hamas warns Israeli regime about ‘grave escalation’ in Gaza

Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has slammed Israel’s recent “grave escalation,” warning Tel Aviv about potential consequences.

A Palestinian was killed on Wednesday in the latest Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have claimed a Hamas fighter was targeted after Israeli forces came under sniper fire, which injured an officer.

An Israeli military statement said, “In response to the firing at our forces who were east of the fence in the southern Gaza Strip, we carried out immediate attacks against the relevant targets. There was an airstrike and one by a tank.”

Palestinian medical sources said Tayseer al-Ismary, 33, died after being hit by a bullet.

“This is a grave escalation,” a Hamas statement read, adding, “The occupation is fully responsible to all of the consequences of the escalation. The resistance has a right to defend itself and its people.”

The movement also warned Israel that it was “playing with fire.”

On December 20, Israeli attacks targeted a military site belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in violation of an August ceasefire that ended Tel Aviv’s bloody summer war on the Palestinian enclave.

Later in the day, Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, warned Palestinians in a statement of another “foolish” Israeli act, calling upon the international community to carry out its responsibilities toward renewed Israeli aggression.

Israel unleashed aerial attacks on Gaza in early July and later expanded its military campaign with a ground invasion of the coastal sliver. The Israeli war ended on August 26 with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Gaza’s health officials said over 2,140 Palestinians, including 577 children, were killed in the Israeli onslaught. Over 11,100 others, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were also injured.