Hamas threatens to shower Israel with rockets for 6 months
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar on Monday threatened that his group would fire rockets at Israel for six months continuously if the blockade on the Gaza Strip continues.
By YASSER OKBI/MAARIV, KHALED ABU TOAMEH(photo credit: ASHRAF ABU AMRAH)
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said in a speech on Monday that, "we have a military force in the [Gaza] Strip that the enemy is making a big deal for. We have hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, hundreds of control rooms above and below the ground, thousands of anti-tank missiles and thousands of mortar shells." He added that, "we can turn the enemy cities into ghost towns if they decide to attack us."According to him, what would not happen with words would happen with fire and weapons. "The whole world must know that in Gaza there are about 70,000 armed young men from all the Palestinian factions, and we have young people who believe in the Palestinian cause and [will] achieve the purpose of the people," he said.Sinwar continued: "We saw that the Zionist enemy was ruled by an extreme Right, seizing the opportunity to make Al Aqsa Mosque Jewish and destroy its foundations from within." He noted that, "the US administration moved its embassy to Jerusalem and declared it the capital of the occupying entity and there were leaks from the century deal, which meant pushing the Palestinian issue.""The blockade and strangulation on the Gaza Strip has come to kill Gaza and its residents - and yet we have accomplished [a lot] over the last two years," he said.Speaking to a youth group in the Gaza Strip, Sinwar said that Hamas won’t allow the “humanitarian crisis” in the coastal enclave to continue. “We won’t wait for too long,” he said. “Israel,” he said, “should prepare for something big.”He said that resolving the “humanitarian crisis” in the Gaza Strip should be at the top of the agenda of Israeli leaders. The crisis “has affected all walks of life because of the blockade and sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip,” he added. “The blockade aims to force our people to surrender and revolt against the Palestinian resistance.”Sinwar said that Hamas has told the Egyptian mediators that it will “strike at Tel Aviv for six full months” unless the crisis is resolved. “We have hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and thousands of anti-armored weapons and locally made rockets,” he said."The missiles manufactured in the Gaza Strip will crush the world's most powerful tanks, [turning them] into burnt iron," Sinwar claimed.Addressing recent developments in the political field, he said: "Our stance has led to the uprooting of the Israeli government and Liberman, and we brought about a crisis that not even two elections could solve. Maybe they'll have a third one."He also revealed that Hamas has formed an “operations room” together with 13 Palestinian groups to repel any Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. Iran, he said, deserves big credit for building Hamas’s military force.“We won’t hesitate to confront the enemy, and in the past we knew how to manage these confrontations without turning them into all-out wars,” Sinwar said. “We heard statements from the leaders of the occupation threatening us, but we will make them curse the day they were born.”The Hamas leader praised Iran, saying that "it has a place of honor in front of God in building and strengthening our power." He added that "had it not been for Iran's financial support, weapons and the transfer of expertise to the resistance in Gaza and Palestine, we would not have reached where we are."He mentioned the threats made by Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz: "We have heard the threats of the occupation leadership and found that some of their leadership joins the menacing prayer." He then addressed Israel directly: "We are waiting to see if you can form a government – so we can see what it does."Sinwar said the injuries and siege were only to build a force to humiliate the occupation army. "We have built this power and will continue to build it – not to protect the Strip, not to protect ourselves, but to achieve our people's dream of freedom and return," he concluded.
