Hamas warns of ‘massive missile strikes’ if Israel tries to assassinate leaders

Hamas has warned that it will burn Israeli-occupied cities to the ground with “massive missile strikes” if the regime in Tel Aviv acts on its threats to assassinate any of the leaders of the Palestinian resistance group.

According to Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network, Hamas told Egyptian mediators that it will not remain indifferent to the Israeli regime’s threats to assassinate its leaders, noting that “the price of such foolishness is known to the enemy.”

“We will burn the cities in [the country’s] center and launch missiles at Tel Aviv and Gush Dan if Israel acts on its threats, those of which surpasses the enemy’s imagination,” Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the resistance movement, warned on Saturday.

Israeli media figures have been calling for the assassination of top Hamas officials, namely Yaha Sinwar, the leader of the resistance group in the Gaza Strip, in the aftermath of a stabbing attack in the central city of Elad on Thursday night.

Some of them even took those threats to social media, openly calling for Sinwar’s assassination and wishing that he had instead died while he was in prison.

Extremist member of the Knesset Itamar Ben-Gvir called for bombing the house of Sinwar.

“The Air Force planes must now launch missiles at the house of Yahya Sinwar, who called for attacks with weapons and axes, and to assassinate him,” Ben-Gvir said.

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The Israeli regime has conducted numerous assassinations since the formation of the regime 74 years ago. The assassination of Palestinian resistance leaders peaked during the Second Intifada, in an attempt to staunch a wave of attacks in Israeli cities.

Sinwar’s house was once bombed by the Israeli military during the regime’s 11-day war against the Gaza Strip in May 2021, but the attack was carried out while he was not at home. Sinwar later taunted Israeli forces by walking around the streets of Gaza on foot.

“We warn the Israeli occupation and its leadership that an assassination of our brother Yahya Sinwar or any of the leaders of the Palestinian resistance will bring about an earthquake across Israel,” Abu Ubaida cautioned.

“Israel’s possible assassination of any of the leaders of the Palestinian resistance will bring about a catastrophic chapter in the history of the Zionist regime,” he added.

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Cairo calls Israel’s bluff

Egyptian sources familiar with the situation said that Cairo rules out the possibility that Israel would resume the policy of targeted assassinations.

The sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed online news website that Egyptian mediators had previously warned Israel that harming Sinwar or any other leaders of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad would mean that the Israeli regime “has taken a decision to launch an all-out military confrontation.”

The Egyptians were recently contacted by the US administration with the goal of preventing an escalation, they added.

A member of Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Risheq, said on Friday that the Israeli “threats and incitement to assassinate Yahya Sinwar or any of the movement’s leaders don’t frighten us.”

Tensions have been running high across occupied Palestinian territories since last month amid an escalation in Israeli violence against Palestinian and Israeli settlers’ daily incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

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