Islam Times - Hamas: We Won’t Rest Assured until Al-Quds’ is Liberated

Islam Times - Hamas lays emphasis on its determination towards restoring Palestinians’ right to the holy occupied city of al-Quds, despite escalation in the Israeli regime’s aggression.

We won’t rest assured until al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque’s liberation, Ismail Haniyeh, Head of the Palestinian resistance movement’s Political Bureau, said in late Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

“The current Palestinian generation can do this,” he added.

The regime occupied the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, where al-Quds is located, in 1967.

The Israeli military and illegal settlers intensified the regime’s violations against Palestinians across al-Quds, including on the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound -- Islam's third-holiest site that is situated in al-Quds’ Old City -- after the beginning of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The military attacked thousands of worshippers on the compound, and also tried to evict Palestinians from al-Quds’ Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

Gaza, where Hamas is headquartered, rose in protest afterwards. Since Monday, the Israeli military has taken the coastal sliver under unremitting, hugely deadly, and indiscriminate assaults.

Scores of Palestinians have martyred during the violations targeting the West Bank, while the attacks on Gaza has led to the martyrdom of 139 others, including 39 children and 22 women.

On Saturday, Salameh Marouf, Head of the Gaza-based Government Information Office, said, only during the previous night, the regime had carried out as many as “300 attacks” against Gaza.

The damage afflicted on the territory since Monday, the official added, could so far be estimated at $260 million.

Haniyeh, however, said, “Resistance is our strategic option,” adding that the Islamic resistance groups in Gaza would not stand idly by, while the regime carried out such violations against the al-Aqsa Mosque.

He reminded how he had previously called the holy site a “red line,” and cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against “playing with fire.”

Palestinian movements have retaliated by firing thousands of rockets towards the Occupied Palestinian Lands. Many of the projectiles have flown into the depths of the territories and well beyond.