TEHRAN— As we are moving from “stone intifada” to “missile intifada,” things are looking differently for the apartheid regime of Israel, which is on the verge of decline.

As the Israeli forces try to put more pressure on the Palestinian citizens residing in the West Bank, the righteous struggle for freedom among Palestinian fighters have gone to a new level. 

In this regard, the Israeli regime’s army announced early on Saturday that a shooting had taken place near the Ariel settlement bloc in the north of the West Bank.

According to the regime's Channel 13, a security guard in the Ariel settlement was shot dead by two armed Palestinians.

The Israeli army radio dubbed the operation as a “security incident,” stating that it is not over and that the security forces of the regime were looking for the perpetrators.
The shooters apparently used improvised Carlo submachine guns.

Ariel and other settlements of the area issued a lockdown order over fears the Palestinian fighters may retaliate again.

A large number of Israeli occupation forces began to block off roads as police and the military launched a massive manhunt for the fighters. Confusion started to dominate as local security officials stated that they did not know where the vehicle headed after the attack.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, praised the operation in the heart of the West Bank, saying it was a “heroic operation” and a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation and its settlers.” 

The Israeli army has stepped up its West Bank activities in an attempt to crack down on the Palestinian worshippers.

The subsequent strikes sparked by the Israeli troops left at least 25 Palestinians dead, including many innocent fasting civilians. 

The correspondent of Al-Mayadeen News Network in the occupied Palestine reported that the occupation forces closed the entrance to the Salafist area after the incident.

The director of the Al-Mayadeen Network office in the occupied Palestine also said that the Ariel settlement was heavily guarded and that shots were fired at the town's security forces from a distance.

He added that the selection of this Zionist settlement bloc in the West Bank to carry out the operation was intended to present a great security challenge for the occupying Israeli forces.

The “security incident” comes as the Israeli army announced on Thursday morning that six battalions of reserve forces had been called in to replace normal forces along the retaining wall and the West Bank contact line.

According to the Israeli military spokesman, this decision was taken after the assessment of Aviv Kochavi, the chief of the joint staff of the Israeli army, from the current situation, and the mentioned forces will be present in the said areas for at least three weeks.

With a reference to the start of the fiercest wave of Palestinian reprisals, Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth wrote that the Israeli sense of security has reached its lowest level since Operation Barrier Wall in 2002.

Haaretz, another Israeli media outlet, described the recent series of resistance operations in the occupied territories as a "strategic event," writing that the Israeli regime's cabinet did not expect such operations from the Palestinian fighters.

According to Israel’s Channel 14, 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in just over the last 40 days.

The channel admitted that this is the most intense wave of Palestinian operations against Israeli forces in recent years.

A spokesman for Hamas said on Saturday morning that the operation in the Ariel settlement reiterates that the new wave of revolution is spreading throughout the West Bank.

“Operation Ariel emphasizes that the occupiers' measures against the insistence of the Palestinian youth are counteracting,” he added.

To remember the struggle of the Palestinians to liberate their lands, the Tehran Times is hosting its first online event. The event, titled “Remember Palestine”, is to remind everyone of the long-driven struggle of the Palestinians for their most fundamental rights including their motherlands.