WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The next battle over al-Quds will be a “regional war”, a senior member of the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad’s political bureau has warned.
“It is enough to hear five prominent leaders in the region expressing their readiness to defend al-Quds,” Khaled Al-Batsh told reporters.
He described those forces as “capable of waging war and leading a regional battle for al-Quds.”
Last month the Zionist regime bombed the Gaza Strip, killing over 250 Palestinians, after resistance factions declared support for Palestinians in occupied East al-Quds who are at risked of forced displacement to make way for illegal settlers.
On Friday, Zionist troops stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East al-Quds and wounded Palestinians.
Following Friday prayers, Palestinian worshippers started a rally in support of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in response to insults directed at him during a Zionist march through the area on Tuesday.
Palestinians gathered in the courtyard, but before they began their march from Al-Aqsa to the Old City’s Damascus Gate, Zionist troops raided the compound through Bab al-Silsila, one of its entrances.
They fired bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades, emptying the compound of thousands of worshippers.
The Palestinians protested against insulting the revered Prophet Muhammad after an online video showed some of the participants in the Tuesday march denigrating him.
The Middle East Eye reported Zionist troops shot one of its journalists, Latifeh Abdelatif, in the knee as they raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The Zionist regime also attacked the Gaza Strip for a second time in as many days in outright violation of a fragile ceasefire that it had desperately demanded during its latest war on the Palestinian enclave.
On Thursday night, the regime’s warplanes hit at least five locations across the coastal territory, alleging them to be targets belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas, Palestinian media outlets said.
The Zionist regime’s military, meanwhile, alleged, “The attack was carried out in response to the continued launching of incendiary balloons at” the occupied territories.
The regime regularly claims being targeted by balloons mounted with incendiary devices from the direction of Gaza. Its television channels also routinely broadcast footage of blazes billowing out across the occupied lands that border Gaza.
In an apparent bid at an uncalled-for hype, the military said rocket sirens had also been set off in the “Kfar Aza community” near Gaza’s border.
Israeli Ynet news site, however, acknowledged that there were no immediate reports of rockets or missiles landing near the community.
Hamas dismissed the fresh attacks as a means of the regime’s trying to cast attention away from its defeat during the war.
The war began last month and lasted for 11 days. Soon after its launch, Gaza’s resistance groups began firing more than 4,000 rockets towards the occupied territories.