Alwaght- Senior officials of the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements have warned the Zionist regime against any ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying such assault will be met with a strong and decisive response.
The warning came from Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official and Abu Shahin, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Jihad who were addressing a joint press conference on the sidelines of the 24th Iran Media Expo in Tehran on Tuesday.
"Our nation is stable and the Palestinian resistance showed that it has great strength and the Zionist army is desperate against the resistance forces," Hamdan emphasized.
Hamdan also accused the West of being a partner to the Israeli crimes and said: The world is witnessing a human disaster in Gaza, but the United States and some European countries ignore the crimes of the occupying regime.
While calling the resistance a source of unity among Palestinians and the Islamic-Arab world, the Hamas official reiterated demands for the Gaza ceasefire, saying the movement would not settle for anything less than the end of the war, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the flow of humanitarian aid, the reconstruction of Gaza and the release of prisoners.
Hamdan also said that conditions laid out by the resistance for any ceasefire deal with the Zionist regime are not negotiable.
He, however, blamed the Israeli regime for trying to make the ceasefire negotiations futile, saying the regime doesn’t want to accept the demands and regrets the response it had given to the proposals.
“But our response to the proposal is same and will not change”, Hamdan said in reference to a framework that was hammered out in the Paris talks on the potential Gaza ceasefire last month and a follow up meeting between American and Israeli spy chiefs as well as Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo that ended inconclusively.
He also touched on a visit to Cairo by Hamas political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh and said he will convey the resistance movement’s stance to the mediators on the framework of past proposals.
Stating that some truce proposals serve the interests of the Israeli regime, he said the rights of the Palestinians cannot be ignored.
“The history of Palestine does not begin with the Al-Aqsa Storm but the Palestinian nation has witnessed the crimes since the creation of the Zionist regime, and we are ready to die for the rights that have been taken away from us”, he underlined.
The Hamas official further said that the message of Al-Aqsa Storm is to stand against oppression and occupation and lay the groundwork for making fundamental changes in confronting the occupiers in such a way to achieve the goal of freedom and realize the end of the occupation.
Islamic Jihad pledge
During the presser, the member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Jihad Movement reiterated Palestinians' resolve to defeat enemy plots with courage, patience and resistance.
While highlighting Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide, Ali Abu Shahin warned that the Israeli attack on Rafah, which is crammed with about one and a half million Palestinians, will be the biggest crime in modern history.
He also touched on the Gaza ceasefire and said that Israeli captives will not be freed unless the regime agrees to a complete cessation of the war among other conditions.
“Accepting ae ceasefire means Israel's defeat and this regime intends to compensate for its defeat by attacking Rafah, but the resistance is prepared to counter such move as they pinned down the enemy in northern Gaza and in the city of Khan Yunis”, he underlined.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Abu Shahin called the United States and many European countries accomplice in Israeli crimes against Palestinians. “America is not only a supporter of the Zionist regime, but a partner in crime as it has provided Tel Aviv with billions of dollars in financial and military aid”.
“Millions of people worldwide, especially in Western countries, demonstrated against the policies of their governments, including their support for Israel, but these governments keep supporting the regime”, he responded to a question on the West's self-proclaimed democracy and human rights.
On Israeli threats to Lebanon, the Islamic Jihad official called them a psychological warfare but warned about the regional escalation if the Zionist regime opens a new war front.
Hailing Yemen, Iran
The senior members of Islamic Jihad and Hamas also expressed their gratitude to the Yemeni people for standing by the Palestinian cause, saying they are partner in the victories of the Palestinian nation.
Ali Abu Shahin highlighted the role of Yemen in supporting the people of Gaza and said: The Yemeni front was very effective and was able to incur heavy economic losses on Israel.
He also lauded Iran’s support for Palestinians and their cause and said: There is no doubt that Iran's efforts have played an important role in supporting the Palestinian nation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic was effective in defeating Western diplomatic plots at international institutions.
“Some Arab regimes are watching the Gaza war, if they had only listened to the words of the Iranian leadership about the need to put an economic embargo on Israel, the conditions of resistance would have been much better” he emphasized.
Abu Shahin also criticized certain Arab governments for placing their ports and land in the service of the Zionist regime and said: The stance of these states on Israeli crimes show not only their double standards but even encourage the occupation.
He said that despite all odds, the Al-Aqsa Storm proved that the impossible can be made possible and the resistance in this operation changed the military equations and proved that Palestinians’ will is invincible.
Source: IRNA
