Zionist crimes in Gaza, Quds deserved firm response, Haniyeh tells Iran’s Leader in new letter

In his new letter to the Leader on Tuesday, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, outlined the brutal crimes of the Zionist occupiers against the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem al-Quds, al-Aqsa Mosque, the Gaza Strip and the territories occupied since 1948.

Given the intensification of the occupying Israeli regime’s acts of aggression against the Palestinian people, we held extensive contacts with various parties, asking them to stop the enemy from advancing its crimes and sinister goals and warning that the Palestinian people and resistance would not let these crimes go unanswered, Haniyeh said.

He added that the insistence of the Zionist regime’s criminal leaders on continuing their acts of aggression against the Palestinian nation, land, and sanctities required a decisive and legitimate response through resistance in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas chief emphasized that the enemy commits the most barbaric crimes against the people of Gaza with the deadliest internationally-banned weapons every day and carries out the most heinous crimes against the demonstrators in Quds, the West Bank and the 1948 occupied territories.

In the face of such relentless crimes, Haniyeh said, we call for immediate action as well as Arab, Islamic and international mobilization in order to take decisive stances and force the Zionist enemy to stop its aggression against the besieged people in Gaza, the inhabitants of Quds, the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian worshipers.

The blockaded Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank have been simmering with rage in the past weeks over the regime’s scheme to forcefully and illegally expel dozens of Palestinians from their homes in the volatile Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds as part of a long-running scheme to Judaize Palestinian lands.

The anger further intensified earlier this month with Israeli attacks on Palestinian worshipers in the al-Aqsa Mosque complex during the fasting days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Amid the tension, Israel launched yet another brutal aerial campaign against mainly civilian targets in Gaza on May 10. Since then, at least 212 Palestinians, including 61 children and 36 women, have been killed and 1400 others injured in the Israeli onslaught.

In a message addressed to Ayatollah Khamenei earlier this month, Haniyah called on the Muslim world to take up a firm stance in support of the residents of the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, and adopt proper measures to stop the acts of aggression being perpetrated by Israeli forces in the holy city.

Meanwhile, five Palestinian resistance groups and movements have written separate letters and messages to the Leader, thanking him for his firm stances on supporting the cause of Palestine, which were expressed in Ayatollah Khamenei’s speech on the occasion of International Quds Day.

In his address on the occasion of the International Quds Day, Ayatollah Khamenei said Israel is not a country but a terrorist base against the people of Palestine and other Muslim nations.

“Since the first day, the Zionists turned the usurped Palestine into a terrorist base. Israel is not a country, rather it is a terrorist camp against the Palestinian nation and other Muslim nations,” the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei added that the issue of Palestine continues to be the most important and active issue for the Islamic Ummah collectively.