Hamas Slams US “Green Light” for Israeli Atrocities
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The US president's description of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as “self-defense” is a green light for the continuation of massacring Palestinian children, said Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
"Such support by Washington encourages the occupying regime to commit more atrocities in the besieged Gaza," Palestine Today television network quoted Hamas Spokesman Sami Abou Zahri as saying.
This came in reaction to the US President Barack Obama's recent comments that Israel had the right to defend itself against "inexcusable" rocket attacks from the Gaza strip.
Israel has launched a new wave of military strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip after tensions raged between Palestinians and Israelis following the burning alive of a Palestinian teen in East al-Quds by Israeli settlers.
16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s death sparked a wave of protests across the Palestinian territories earlier this month.
It came a few days after the Israeli military found the dead bodies of three settler teenagers who had been allegedly kidnapped in the occupied West Bank.
Israel was quick to point the finger of blame at the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. The resistance group, however, strongly rejected the allegations, saying Tel Aviv, which was outraged with the formation of a Palestinian unity government, was looking for a pretext to launch a new aggression against the people of Gaza.
Death toll from the week-long Israeli attacks targeting different parts of the Gaza Strip has reached to nearly 230, with some 1,975 other people injured.
According to the United Nations, nearly 80 percent of the casualties in Gaza have been civilians.
