Israel will pay with "blood" for Nablus massacre
The Palestinian resistance says it’s a matter of time before retaliatory operations are conducted after Israel committed another massacre in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
Israeli special forces stormed the eastern market in the Old City of Nablus on Wednesday. The raid sparked armed clashes that lasted for three hours, between Israeli troops and newly formed young Palestinian resistance factions in Nablus who defended the city and drove the regime’s forces out.
But that didn’t stop Israel from carrying out yet another massacre that resulted in the murder of at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including three elderly people and a young child.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 100 others sustained injuries, including seven who are in a serious condition as a result of Israel’s deadly aggression.
Among the dead was 72-year-old Adnan Baara. Three journalists were also wounded by the occupation forces' bullets.
The newly formed Palestinian resistance factions in Nablus and Jenin have vowed to avenge the blood of the “martyrs”, saying they won’t surrender or lay down their arms until they are “martyred”.
Amid the new escalation, the Lions’ Den faction declared that "we will respond to the occupation.”
In a statement posted on social media, it said "with the size of the pain that afflicted Nablus, the occupation will swallow twice the pain, and they will know that our fighters and the fighters of the honorable groups in Nablus will not take a step back."
It warned Israel “we will return blood with blood, in your homes, in your markets, on your buses, in your camps and settlements, and from everywhere, we will go out for you.”
The group stressed that “pleading with the international community is nothing but a mirage, a waste of time, and a waste of dignity.”
On Thursday, the regime’s warplanes also bombed several sites in separate areas of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Among the air raids, the al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip has also been targeted, which led to infrastructure damage to a number of civilian homes.
The Gaza-based resistance confronted the Israeli fighter jets by firing anti-aircraft machine guns.
It preceded the sound of sirens in settlements near Gaza, with Israel claiming that rockets were fired from the Strip. According to Israeli media, “a heavy barrage of rockets was launched from the Gaza Strip towards the peripheral settlements during the past few minutes, and a loud sound was heard.”
The spokesman for (the Gaza-based) Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida, a secretive figure who sends shivers down the spines of the occupation, said that the resistance movement in Gaza is watching Israel's escalating aggression in the West Bank and Hamas's patience is running out.
A Hamas spokesman also pointed out the clashes in Nablus and the Palestinians’ heroic response to the occupation regime is a clear message confirming the growth of the resistance, which the regime will not be able to extinguish the flame of it.
The spokesman added Israel will fail to break the will of the rebellious youth, calling on “the masses of the Palestinian People in the city of Nablus to disembark in all fields and attack the occupation forces.”
Hamas also saluted "the men of Nablus and its heroic resistance, who participated in repelling the aggression, and fought fierce clashes in the battle to defend the city, and painted an honorable patriotic painting of pride, pride, and courage.”
The organization vowed that the Palestinian people will not let this massacre go unanswered, and will avenge the blood of the heroic martyrs.
The Zionist regime boasted of the success of its armed forces from the Special Yamam Unit in liquidating the resistance fighters.
But another resistance faction, the Nablus Brigade said the “brutal Zionist aggression against Nablus was a failed attempt to stop the expansion and spread of resistance cells in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.”
In a statement, it praised the steadfastness in its battle with the regime’s special forces and warned that “the Zionist enemy will pay the price for its crimes against our Palestinian people, whether in the long term or short term.”
The Gaza-Based Islamic Jihad movement has also threatened the occupation regime, saying that "the Palestinian resistance is capable of inflicting pain on the enemy again." It stressed, "we are certain that the response to the Nablus massacre will not take long.”
The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, said what happened in Nablus was a major crime committed by the occupation regime against the Palestinian people, and therefore it is our duty as resistance forces to respond to this crime without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah (the resistance front in Lebanon) issued a statement strongly condemning the latest aggression in Nablus, saying "the Israeli occupation forces' brutality and cruelty in targeting innocent civilians confirms that this enemy is deterred from its evil only by the resistance's rifle and their honorable arms, which will teach the enemy lessons that will reveal to it the extent of his foolishness and put an end to his arrogance and terror.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also condemned "the terrorist attack of the Israeli forces on the city of Nablus," and called on the international community "to take immediate measures to stop the attack and condemn the genocide of the Palestinians."
The Ansarallah government in Yemen also condemned the "bloody massacre" and affirmed that "the Israeli enemy would not have persisted in its attacks against the Palestinian people had it not been for the American support and the disgraceful complicity of the normalizing and collaborating Arab regimes."
As Israel escalates its aggression in the occupied West Bank with almost daily raids and Palestinians take to the streets en masse to mourn the dead, the Palestinian death toll, since the start of this year, has risen to more than 61, including 13 children.
Experts say the statement by Abu Obeida was very clear, indicating that the enemy is now well aware that the resistance in Gaza will not remain silent about what occurred in Nablus.
Like the Jenin massacre earlier this year, what happened in Nablus will have strong repercussions for the occupation regime. Over the coming days and weeks, it will result in retaliatory operations in the occupied West Bank or the other occupied Palestinian lands.
If the developments get out of control, there is a high possibility that the retaliation may expand to the Gaza Strip.
Israel is well aware of the scale of the crime it has committed and its heightened state of alert shows its Nablus operation will not bring Israeli settlements any security.
Israeli media has reported that the entire security establishment of the Israeli regime has entered into a state of alert to try and avoid retaliatory operations from the occupied West Bank and occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), inside the occupied Palestinian territories’ cities as well as the firing of rockets from the besieged Gaza Strip.