OFFICIAL STATEMENT – Hamas mocks possibility of Zionist ground incursion

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (military wing of Hamas) has dismissed as ridiculous reports that the Zionist regime may engage in a ground attack into the Gaza Strip.

In a statement released this evening, the Brigades reiterated that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a response to the ongoing aggression that the Zionist regime has carried out since its creation on Palestine in 1948 and the ongoing desecration of Palestinian sanctities, namely the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Discussing the battlefield, Abu Obeida noted that more than 60 hours after the start of the operation, the Israeli Occupation Force has been unable to confront the resistance in the field. Meanwhile, it has used its miserable failure to take revenge against the Palestinian people by bombing civilian homes, markets and streets in Gaza. He noted these are war crimes.

He says the resistance has successfully been rotating its soldiers in the field and dispatching supplies to them.

The resistance representative further noted that the possibility of the operation expanding to include fellow resistance movements is not mere sloganeering. Already, the Islamic resistance in Lebanon, Hezbollah, has struck two Israeli military installations, including an army barracks in the north of Occupied Palestine.

Abu Obeida concluded with a clear message to Israel: ‘The era of your victory has passed forever and the time has come for the era of your defeats”.

Saraya Al-Quds spokesperson Abu Hamza: If the Israeli enemy values the lives of its soldiers, officers, and settlers in our grips, it must immediately stop targeting homes and killing innocent people.

If the enemy does not cease its crimes against civilians, the fate of these prisoners of war will be unknown, just like the fate of “Ron Arad” over forty years ago.

This is a message to the enemy’s public to observe how your army behaves towards your own children, intentionally killing them and ending their lives with utter disregard.

Palestinian Ministry of Health: Total death toll 704. At least 687 people have been martyred in Gaza and 17 in the West Bank. About 3,800 wounded in the besieged enclave and more than 90 injured in the West Bank.

Zionist media: Zionist entity’s Energy Minister Yisrael Katz, has ordered the army shut water supply to Gaza.

Zionist regime in a classical move of collective punishment has announced to lay siege to Gaza, as it maintains intense bombing of civilian and religious sites.

Israeli sympathetic media show Zionist occupation force military vehicles move into Sderot, more than 60 hours after Hamas launched operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Ministry of Health in Gaza: Five health personnel have been killed and 10 others injured. The Israeli occupation has deliberately targeted ambulances. Eleven ambulances were targeted and one of the health services vehicles destroyed.

Ministry of Health in Gaza: There continues to be a lack of electricity to operate the health care system. This threatens the lives of all sick and injured people.

Ministry of Health in Gaza: Since the beginning of the ongoing Israeli escalation there have been 13 families massacred. Most of them are still under the rubble.

Palestinian Health Information Center: 687 killed, including 140 children, and 105 women. At least 3726 have been injured with 10% of them children.

Hezbollah: After the martyrdom of three of our fighters this afternoon as a result of the Israeli occupation’s attacks on Lebanese towns and villages, in an initial response, we have attacked the Branit military site (command center of the Galilee Division) and the Avivim Barracks (command center affiliated with the Western Brigade) using guided missiles and mortar shells.