Hamas calls West Bank shootings a response to ‘israeli’ incursions into al-Aqsa
A spokesman for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has said that shooting operations in various parts of the West Bank are a response to Israeli settlers’ incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“Successive shooting operations in various parts of the West Bank, the latest in Nablus and Jenin, is in line with an escalating popular revolution in response to the storming of al-Aqsa and the provocations of settlers today,” Abd al-Latif al-Qanou said in a statement on Sunday.
He also hailed a group of resistance fighters called Areen al-Usood (The Lion’s Den) for carrying out retaliatory attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in Nablus and called for greater support for the fighters in the West bank.
On Sunday, an Israeli settler was reportedly wounded in a Palestinian shooting operation that targeted his vehicle on a road between Beit Furik and the Elon Moreh settlement on the outskirts of Nablus.
Palestinian resistance fighters also opened fire at an Israeli bus traveling on the same road before withdrawing from the area. The vehicle and bus sustained some damage.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, hailed the attacks, saying the revolution of the Palestinian people will persist until their goals are achieved.
Israeli media reported later on Sunday that an Israeli soldier was shot in the leg on a road between the settlement of Itamar and the military’s Samaria regional brigade base.
Samaria regional council chairman, Yossi Dagan, was also reportedly wounded in the shooting operations.
Israeli troops had launched a manhunt for the shooters who are said to have withdrawn from the area safely.
Israeli forces have been recently conducting near-nightly raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.
More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied territories since the start of the year, including 51 in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s three-day assault in August.
More than 30 of those killed were either from Jenin or were killed in the Jenin region.
The Israeli regime has also recently ramped up incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds, with Hamas warning that such infringements upon the holy site could lead to “explosions” in the region.
A general strike has been called across the West Bank in commemoration of those martyred and in protest against the latest Israeli aggression.
