Hamas Condemns Israeli Assassination of Palestinians, Says Such Crimes Will Not Go Unpunished

Hamas in a statement strongly condemned the fatal shooting of two Palestinian men during a raid near the city of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank.

“This cowardly targeted killing reflects the state of panic that has gripped the occupying regime in the wake of daily defeats of its security apparatus throughout the West Bank and al-Quds, especially as resistance fighters have ramped up their operations,” Hamas said in the Monday statement.

“Today’s crime is in line with the different crimes that our nation is exposed to on a daily basis, namely raids, detentions, expansion of illegal settlements as well as Judaization activities in al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. This requires unified and comprehensive resistance on the part of all Palestinians to be stopped,” the statement.

Hamas then paid tribute to all Palestinian resistance fighters who courageously stand against Israeli military forces and settlers’ attacks, and defend their land, people and sanctities.

Moreover, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh urged the international community to hold Israel directly responsible for the dangerous and bloody escalation of tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the rise in serious violations of Palestinians’ human rights.

Speaking at the opening of a weekly cabinet session in Ramallah, he called on world countries to exert real pressure on the occupying Tel Aviv regime to immediately stop the escalation.

He also called on the countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine, particularly the European Union member states, to do so, protect the so-called two-state solution, and strengthen Palestinian-European partnership.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli army killed in cold blood two Palestinian men in a car just outside the Jalazone refugee camp north of Ramallah.

The Palestinian official news agency, Wafa, identified them as 18-year-old Bassel Qassem Basbous and 21-year-old Khaled Fadi Anbar.

A third, Raafat Habash, 19, was also with them in the car and was wounded in the shooting.

The bodies of the two men were taken by the Israeli army after they were killed, while Habash was arrested.

Israeli forces have recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied territories since the start of the year, including 51 in the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s three-day onslaught in August.

More than 30 of those killed were either from Jenin or were killed in the Jenin region.