Hamas hails ‘heroic Haifa operation’ as natural response to Israeli genocide
The Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad have hailed a retaliatory anti-Israel operation in the north of the 1948 occupied territories.
In a statement released on Monday, Hamas said, “This operation comes as a natural response to the ongoing crimes of the occupation against our people in the West Bank, Gaza, and al-Quds.”
Those crimes, the Hamas statement said, included the “escalating killings, destruction, and forced displacement in the refugee camps of the northern West Bank.”
Hamas also condemned Israel for the “ongoing suffocating siege on Gaza, the projects aimed at emptying the Jordan Valley of Palestinians, and the continued desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Two people were reportedly killed and six others injured, two of them in critical condition, during a stabbing incident at the central bus terminal on the Histadrut Boulevard in the city of Haifa on Monday.
Israeli forces killed the person who conducted the operation.
Two people are reportedly killed and six others injured during a “stabbing” incident in the city of Haifa in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Eyewitnesses reported chaotic scenes as Israeli forces mistakenly shot at an Israeli settler, believing him to be one of the attackers.
The Hamas statement further said, “The resistance will continue until the liberation of the land and sanctities, the expulsion of the occupier, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital.”
Elsewhere in the statement, Hamas called upon the Palestinians across the occupied territories to “escalate confrontation with the enemy and engage in resistance by all possible means.”
Multiple bus explosions have rocked the town of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, instilling fear in settlers and bringing the city to a halt.
In a similar statement, the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad praised the “heroic operation” in Haifa.
Islamic Jihad similarly said the operation was “a natural response to the ongoing crimes, genocide, and war crimes committed by the criminal entity and its settlers against our people.”
“It reaffirms our people’s commitment to their land, homeland, and the path of resistance.”
Islamic Jihad said the operation also confirms that “all Israeli military campaigns serve no purpose other than repression, abuse, and massacres.”
“Our people’s determination to respond to the occupation’s crimes proves the failure of the entity’s security apparatus in achieving its illusionary sense of security.”
Anti-Israeli operations have surged across the occupied territories in recent weeks.
On February 27, more than a dozen Israeli settlers were injured after a Palestinian carried out a car-ramming operation in the occupied territories.
Multiple bus explosions earlier rocked the town of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, instilling fear among settlers and bringing the city to a halt.
The Tel Aviv bus blasts notably began following 16 months of Israeli campaign of genocide in Gaza and the ongoing aggression in the West Bank.
Israeli officials said there are suspicions that the bus explosion attacks are linked to Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank.
Later, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli military to carry out an “intensive operation” in the West Bank.
At least 40,000 Palestinians have already been displaced in Jenin and nearby Tulkarm since January.
