Both attacks took place in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The second operation took place in the illegal Silwan settlement of al-Quds. The attacks occurred just 24 hours after a battalion of 50 Israeli military vehicles backed by special forces invaded the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and committed a massacre, killing 9 Palestinians including an elderly woman.
A tenth Palestinian later died in protests against the raid, which saw the single largest death toll among Palestinians since 2001.
The regime cited a potential threat to its settlers as a pretext for staging the massacre, but Palestinian resistance factions vowed to avenge the deaths while praising the residents of Jenin for putting up a resistance.
The instant retaliatory response has taken the Israeli security apparatus off guard.
The Zionist regime’s police officials announced that the first attack, which took place outside a synagogue, left 7 Israelis dead, in addition to 3 others with serious injuries and 2 with mild ones. They said the attacker was “a resident of Jerusalem (al-Quds), and he had no security background.”
The Israeli police chief said, “this attack is one of the biggest that we have faced in recent years.”
Israeli media say the attacker “got out of a car and started shooting with a weapon for 20 minutes until he was neutralized.”
An Israeli military analyst, by the name of Nir Dvori, said “the operation now in Jerusalem (al-Quds) may have something to do with what happened in Jenin, as an act of revenge.”
Experts would argue that this isn’t rocket science to figure out.
The speed with which the retaliatory operations took place marks the beginning of a new phase of the new popular resistance emerging from the occupied West Bank.
The Thursday massacre in Jenin was met with suspicious silence by the international community.
Many politicians, including UN officials, called for restraint. No Western government (with the exception of Northern Ireland) condemned the heinous Israeli brutality.
Following the retaliation, the Western community was quick to condemn the response in a clear example of double standards between the occupier and the indigenous people of the land.
After the Palestinian response, Israeli media saw that “the problem with these attacks is that there is no address to go to, as the perpetrator is a single person who has weapons and chooses the time he wants.”
The retaliatory operation took place in two squares, with the regime’s security forces reportedly making extra efforts to prevent more attacks by setting up roadblocks, strengthening patrols and providing settlements with extra protection.
But that did not stop the second operation with reports indicating a 13-year-old Palestinian injured two Israeli settlers in the Silwan settlement of occupied al-Quds.
Israel’s Channel 12 said, “Tonight’s attack in Jerusalem (al-Quds) did not come out of nowhere, but rather came, apparently, as revenge for what happened in Jenin.”
Israeli media also reported that the prime minister of the occupation regime, Benjamin Netanyahu, will conduct an assessment of the security situation, while the minister of security, Yoav Gallant, cut short his private visit to the United States, and is returning to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Immediately after the operation was announced, the mosques of the besieged Gaza Strip rejoiced, and the people began distributing sweets.
Hamas, in an official statement published on its website, blessed the heroic operation carried out by the 21-year-old martyr Khairy Alqam, from the Shuafat refugee camp in occupied al-Quds.
Hamas said that this operation is “a natural response to the Jenin massacre, the desecration of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque, and the escalating Zionist crimes and aggressions against our people.”
In its statement, the movement added, “Our people will continue to strike the enemy’s sites, barracks, and settlements, and the resistance will remain the choice of our people until the liberation of its land and sanctities and the taking of all its national rights,” and that this qualitative operation took place inside the “Nabi Jacob” settlement, which is established on “our lands” in the town of Beit Hanina, north of occupied al-Aqsa.
The Islamic Jihad Movement also blessed the al-Quds commando operation, saying in a statement that it “fired its blessed bullets against the herds of Zionist settlers near the ‘Nabi Jacob’ neighborhood in al-Quds, and caused many deaths and injuries.”
Islamic Jihad affirmed that this operation, which “healed the hearts of our people, came at the right time and place to avenge the blood of the martyrs in the Jenin camp and the West Bank, and as a natural and legitimate response to the crimes of the occupation and the violation of sanctities.”
The movement indicated that the operation “sent a strong message to the Israeli occupation that the resistance is ready and our people’s response is not far away, and that its heinous crimes will not go unpunished.” The statement concluded, “this blessed operation is a field confirmation of the determination of the Palestinian people and the presence of the resistance and its ability to respond in all arenas, and to let the occupier know that there is no safety for him or his settlers on any part of the pure soil of Palestine.”
Also, the al-Quds Brigades blessed the heroic operation, stressing that these operations express “the unity of the situation between the geography of the homeland, and the will of the Palestinian people and their rejection of the Israeli occupation.”
The al-Quds Brigades added that the commando operation is “a natural and clear response to the presence of the Israeli occupation on the land of Palestine, and its brutal practices against the Palestinian people in Jenin, Nablus, Gaza, al-Quds and all of Palestine, as a testament to the unity of the resistance arenas.”
Likewise, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades praised the operation that it said was carried out in response to the enemy’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement said “the al-Quds operation, which resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of Israelis, is an honorable operation, and it raises the head of the Palestinian people, and the Jihad movement blesses it.”
It stressed, “This operation tells the extremist Israeli government that the Palestinian people do not sleep on their blood.”
The leader of the Islamic Jihad movement indicated readiness for all possible scenarios, adding “we will be a support for the resistance fighters in the West Bank and al-Quds.”
Also, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that the al-Quds operation confirms that “the Palestinian people cannot tolerate the blood of their children, so the occupation’s response came harshly through this process.”
Qassem stressed that “the Palestinian resistance proves that its security mind, even if it is individual, can defeat the Israeli occupation forces.”
He pointed out that the operation came “in retaliation for the bloodshed of the people of occupied Palestine, and in response to the occupation’s crimes against sanctities and the plundering of Palestinian lands.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine pointed out that the international community, which did not pay attention to the occupation’s crime and massacre in the Jenin camp, bears responsibility for the continued massacres against the Palestinian people, and it must be aware that the people are determined to wrest their freedom.
The Resistance Committees called on the Palestinian people to engage in more clashes and carry out qualitative and powerful operations against the Israeli occupation and its settlers until they are expelled from the Palestinian territories.
First published in Tehran times
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