GAZA (Dispatches) -- The Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements on Saturday lauded as heroic a stabbing operation carried out by a young Palestinian, who was fatally shot by Zionist forces in the occupied West bank city of Al-Khalil.
Fadi Muhammad Ghattas was shot dead on Friday evening after Israeli troops opened fire on the 19-year-old Palestinian over a stabbing attack at the entrance to the village of Beit Einun, five kilometers northeast of Al-Khalil.
The operation, which took place near the Zionist settlement of Kiryat Arba, left one of the occupying regime’s forces seriously injured.
In a press statement, Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu offered condolences to the families of the Palestinian hero and his fans as he hailed the heroic act.
“The operation is a natural result of the escalation of the crimes of the occupation against our people, our cities, our prisoners and our holy sites,” he said.
Qanu also called on Palestinian fighters to “target more settlers and occupation soldiers, engage them in all locations, and set the ground in flames under their feet.”
In a separate statement, the Islamic
Jihad resistance movement praised the operation.
“We in the Islamic Jihad Movement, as we mourn the heroic martyr who carried out his duty of resistance, affirm that the operation he carried out is a natural and legitimate response in light of the escalation of killings and arrests against our people in Al-Quds and the occupied West Bank,” the statement said.
The operation, it said, represents a “blessed extension of the burning flame of resistance” in the cities and villages of the occupied West Bank in the face of the occupation.
“This operation confirms the vitality and continuity of our people’s resistance against this occupation, and proves that armed resistance is the option that can deter the occupation and deter it from its terrorist practices,” the resistance movement said.
“We salute our people and our resistance fighters in the cities and towns of the West Bank, and we congratulate their steadfastness despite all attempts at displacement and exclusion.”
The fatal shooting on Friday came a day after Zionist forces martyred two Palestinian men during two separate raids in the West Bank. The men were identified as Samer Khaled, 25, from Al-Ain refugee camp in Nablus, and Yazan Affaneh, 26, from Umm al-Sharayet neighborhood south of Ramallah.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR ) said in a recent report that Zionist military forces have martyred more than one hundred Palestinians, and wounded hundreds more during raids and various acts of aggression in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip since the beginning of this year.
The PCHR said in the report that 112 Palestinians, including 81 civilians, have lost their lives as a result of repeated Israeli assaults.
The group also said 1,277 civilians, including 195 children, 39 women and 22 journalists, were injured in the West Bank and Gaza during the mentioned period.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails. Hundreds have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons without trial or charge. Some Palestinian prisoners have even been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.