Hamas warns of new round of tension if Israel persists in blockading Gaza

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has warned that a fresh round of “real tension” is very likely in the region if the Israeli regime persists in tightening the years-long blockade on the Gaza Strip.

“The resistance will voice a clear position in this regard because the ongoing blockade is one of the detonators that will make the situation explode any moment,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said in a press release on Saturday, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

Gaza, home to some two million Palestinians, has been under Israeli siege since June 2007.  The tight blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

“The Palestinian resistance can never stand idly by watching this siege and collective punishment being imposed on the Gaza Strip. Our people have the right to live with freedom and dignity, so we will obtain this right by force and we will never compromise on this principled issue,” the Hamas official added.

Qasem also said resistance factions were moving in a “coordinated and collective” way to ultimately end the Israeli siege.

The Hamas spokesman further stressed that the Tal Aviv regime would definitely fail to “blackmail us into making any political position in exchange for our legitimate rights, such as reconstruction, aid entry, lifting the closure, and ensuring free movement for people and goods.”

Back on May 10, the Israeli military launched a brutal bombing campaign against Gaza, following Palestinian retaliation for violent raids on worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque and the regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes at the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds.

About 260 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli bombardment, including dozens of women and children.

In response, Palestinian resistance movements, chief among them Hamas, launched Operation al-Quds Sword and fired more than 4,000 rockets and missiles into the occupied territories, killing 12 Israelis.

Apparently caught off guard by the unprecedented barrage of rockets from Gaza, Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire on May 21, which Palestinian resistance movements accepted with Egyptian mediation.

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Separately on Saturday, Qasem said in another press release that the Israeli military, security, and media circles had “repeatedly” confessed the regime’s operational failure during Operation al-Quds Sword.

Such confessions clearly show that Tel Aviv has confirmed the growing “inability” of its military in facing off the Palestinian resistance and al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas in Gaza, he added.

“The repeatedly released confessions about the failures of Israeli forces in the latest offensive against the Gaza Strip emphasize the occupation’s inability to face off the Palestinian resistance.”

Qasem stressed that such Israeli schemes to massacre civilians confirm its fear to confront the resistance fighters in the field, particularly after the “heroic battles” of the resistance during Operation al-Quds Sword.

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