HAMAS: At least 79 ‘israeli’ armored vehicles destroyed in 72 hours

“Netanyahu and his Nazi cabinet have not been successful in achieving their political, military, and field goals, nor will they be in the future,” Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon and also a member of the group’s politburo, said at a press briefing in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Thursday evening.

“The occupying Zionist entity has exercised all methods of killing, destruction, starvation, and systematic extermination against our people in the Gaza Strip, with American and Western support,” he added as the indiscriminate Israeli bombing campaign against Gaza since October 7 has killed at least 17,177 Palestinians, most of them women and children. More than 46,000 people have been wounded as well.

Hamdan added, “Zionist officials are trying to establish unreal goals to present an imaginary victory to settlers. This is while surrender and defeat do not exist in the lexicon of our people.”

Hamdan underscored that the Tel Aviv regime is trying to clinch an imaginary victory through Netanyahu’s announcement that Israeli forces have encircled the home of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, stating that the development comes irrespective of the fact that the building has already been bombed and demolished.

The top Hamas official also said fighters from his group are engaged in “fierce battles” with Israeli troops in various neighborhoods across the besieged Gaza Strip, stressing that the invading forces are facing fierce and resolute confrontations from the resistance factions.

He said the “actual number” of Israeli soldiers who have been killed and injured during clashes in Gaza is “much higher” than the figures announced by Israeli authorities.

The Hamas’ top representative in Lebanon went on to address family members of Israeli captives in Gaza, saying, “The ongoing military aggression against our people will not return your children to you.”

“They will not return if the ground and air strikes don’t stop,” Hamdan pointed out.

While some 100 aid trucks enter Gaza daily, the Palestinian territory needs 600 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies, the top Hamas official said elsewhere in his remarks.

Hamadan argued that areas in northern Gaza only receive a fraction of what has been allowed to enter the Strip, criticizing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Palestine Red Crescent Society for failing to carry out their duties properly.

The top Hamas official went on to say that resistance fighters have managed to either destroy or damage at least 79 armored Israeli military vehicles in Gaza City over the past 72 hours.

He underscored that Gaza-based Palestinian resistance fighters are fully prepared for any possible scenario, stressing they will firmly stand up against Israeli plans for the forced displacement of the Palestinian population from the region.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the territory’s resistance movements waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.