The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, has issued a strongly-worded message of warning to the Israeli regime and its illegal settlers after the latter renewed their attacks on Palestinians in a flashpoint neighborhood of the occupied East of al-Quds.
Faraan: Muhammad Hamadeh, the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian movement’s spokesman in al-Quds, made the remarks on Sunday after Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli regime’s forces and the settlers had attacked al-Quds’ Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood overnight, injuring an elderly Palestinian. The attack “amounts to a clear violation and is playing with fire,” the Hamas official said.
The Hamas spokesman added, “We warn the occupation [regime of Israel] of the consequences of continuing these attacks, which are similar to playing with explosives that will only explode in their own face.” He called on Palestinian people across the entire occupied territories, especially the holy city of al-Quds, to “mobilize” in support of their fellow countrymen in the face of the “savage occupiers” and “cowardly settlers.”
According to later reports, the settlers’ attack was followed by an alleged “car ramming” incident staged by Palestinians, which injured an Israeli settler. Sheikh Jarrah has been the scene of frequent crackdowns by the Israeli police on the Palestinians protesting against the threatened expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in favor of hardline Israeli settler groups.
Since Israel seized East al-Quds in a 1967 war, Israeli settler organizations have claimed ownership of land in Sheikh Jarrah and have filed multiple lawsuits to evict Palestinians from the area. This is while, most of the international community considers the Israeli settlement structures to be illegal under the international law due to their construction on occupied territory.
