GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – Following the Zionist regime’s lobbying for intensifying raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas warned the Zionist regime not to test its patience because it is ready to defend the Palestinian holy sites, land and property.
In a statement sent to media, Hamas called on the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip: “To keep their fingers on the trigger so that the occupier understands that Gaza is a shield for Al-Aqsa Mosque and a sword raised for defending Al-Quds.”
The Palestinian resistance movement reiterated: “Continuous mobilization against the Palestinian holy sites, land and property, as well as harassing the Palestinian people is something that does not go unpunished.”
Meanwhile, Hamas called on the Palestinian people in the diaspora to continue organizing events and activities in support of Al-Quds and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Zionist settler groups, backed by regime troops, have called for storming Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Day of Arafat as well as placing restrictions on Muslim worshippers on holy days.
The Day of Arafat is an Islamic holiday that falls on the 9th day of the Islamic month of Hajj. It is the holiest day in the Islamic calendar, the second day of the Hajj pilgrimage and the first day of the major Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Adha.

‘Settlers Legitimate Targets’

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement says Zionist settlers are the “legitimate target” of the Palestinian resistance due to recent reports showing that settlers and occupation troops cooperated in attacks that killed a number of Palestinians.
“What the Hebrew-language media revealed about the involvement of settlers in the killing of 11 Palestinians in the West Bank over the past month is clear evidence of the level of terrorism to which our nation is exposed,” said Tariq Salmi, the movement’s spokesman, according to Palestine Today.
Salmi said that the Zionist regime’s army supports the terrorist acts of settlers against Palestinians, adding that “all Zionists” are involved in any crime against the Palestinian nation, which shows that “Palestinians are the target of Zionist scenarios arising from murder, occupation, burning of lands and agricultural crops, attacks, and destruction of [Palestinians’] properties and assets with the aim of expelling them from their land.”
He also said that the reports revealing the cooperation of Zionist troops and settlers to kill Palestinians confront international institutions with their responsibilities.
Zionist troops also repeatedly destroy Palestinian homes under the pretext that they lack building permits, despite the fact that the Tel Aviv regime does not provide such permits to Palestinians, to build more illegal houses for its settlers.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that the Zionist authorities have demolished, seized or forced people to demolish at least 474 Palestinian-owned structures, including 150 donor-funded ones, displacing 656 people, including 359 children, across the occupied West Bank since the beginning of this year.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) urged the United Nations Security Council and the international community on Friday to put pressure on the Zionist regime to rein in its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Al-Quds and Area C.
In a statement, the PA’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates announced: “The bloody reality on our Palestinian people by the occupation does not only undermine any chance of achieving peace on the basis of the two-state solution, but also turns international positions into mere words devoid of any content.”