Mashaal: Israeli Army, Netanyahu Stunned by Palestinians’ Capabilities

Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Hamas movement Khalid Mashaal said Israel was strongly surprised by the Palestinians’ military capabilities after it started aggression against Gaza, and further stressed that Palestinians are ready for all possible conditions.

“The Zionist regime’s ground aggression on Gaza is not unlikely, yet all options are possible and the Resistance is prepared to confront any of these possibilities,” Mashaal told a press conference in Cairo on Monday.

He further highlighted Palestinians’ military power, saying that Netanyahu and the Israeli army were strongly surprised and “disturbed” by the Palestinians’ military capabilities after they started responding to the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

“It was us, not them, who surprised the enemy,” Mashaal said, adding that Netanyahu aimed to repair Israel’s deterrence power and destroy the infrastructures of the Palestinian resistance, but he failed to do so.

“We could exercise deterrence with our firm will and resolve,” the Hamas politburo chief said.

“We are sure that we will have a high morale in the battlefield and all people in Gaza are one soul in a single body,” he reassured.

Over 90 Palestinians have so far been killed and more than 700 others injured in the new wave of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip which started on Wednesday.

Israel triggered the new round of its assaults against Gazans by assassinating the military chief of the ruling Hamas group on Wednesday followed by dozens of airstrikes on Gaza.

In response, the Palestinian groups have fired more than 1,100 missiles and rockets at Israel. Several Israelis have been killed and about 100 others wounded since Israel initiated the attacks.

Palestinian resistance groups targeted a settlement near Jerusalem for the first time Friday, launching a rocket attack in a major escalation of hostilities as Israel pressed forward with relentless airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Israel called up thousands of reservists and massed troops along the border with Gaza, signaling a ground invasion of the densely populated seaside strip could be imminent. The attack on the Israeli settlement, along with an earlier strike on Zionists’ capital Tel Aviv, has frightened the Israeli regime.