Hamas: ‘Armed resistance’ must go on in West Bank

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement says fellow Palestinian compatriots should keep up “armed resistance” against Israeli occupation in the West Bank, after one of the regime’s military commanders was wounded by gunfire in clashes in Nablus.

In a statement on Thursday, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum hailed the Palestinians’ resistance in Nablus and said “constant, pervasive and endless confrontations with Israel’s occupying regime should persist and escalate in all towns and villages across the West Bank.”

He was reacting to the clashes that broke out in the early hours of Thursday over the desecration of Joseph's Tomb, located on the outskirts of Nabuls, by illegal Zionist settlers who made their way into the site under protection of the regime’s military. 

Israeli forces fired tear gas and bullets at the Palestinians protesting the desecration, wounding 64 of them, including children, Iran’s al-Alam TV channel reported.

Palestinians believe an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Yussef Dweikat, was buried there two centuries ago and the Palestinian office of religious sites considers it to be an Islamic archaeological monument.

The Hamas spokesman further said that the Zionist regime’s acknowledgment of the injuries shows that the Palestinian resistance is “strong enough to inflict losses on the enemy, enforce new rules of engagement and push up costs of any raids or incursions targeting the Palestinian nation.”

He added that the armed struggles aim to thwart the regime’s conspiracies, prevent it from achieving any of its goals, and liberate the entire soil of Palestine.

SS