Gaza Genocide28 May, 20263 min read
Yahya Sinwar Says Hamas Won’t Turn Struggle Against Occupation Into Religious War
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Yahya Sinwar says the struggle against the occupation is not a religious war. Israel could assassinate Sinwar after the Elad axe attack.
Sinwar’s speech and threats
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar delivered a speech on April 30 during the annual ceremony marking the end of Ramadan, in the presence of leaders of Palestinian armed factions, political leaders, women, youths, and tribal groups, and he said, "We do not want to turn the struggle against the occupation into a religious war." The Chronique de Palestine account says Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the Palestinian crowd inside Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on April 15 and arrested 470 people to clear the esplanade for Israeli settlers to enter to celebrate Passover.
In the same speech, Sinwar promised that an initial volley of 1111 rockets would be fired at Israel in the next war, explaining, "The number of rockets refers to the date of the death of leader Yasser Arafat [November 11, 2004]." After Israeli threats to assassinate Sinwar, Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said on May 7, "We warn the enemy and its corrupt leaders that attacking Yahya Sinwar or any other resistance leader will trigger an earthquake in the region."
West Bank lockdown and Gaza strikes
Israel imposed a full lockdown across the occupied West Bank immediately after striking Iran early Friday morning, erecting barriers, closing roads, and restricting movement to isolate Palestinian cities from surrounding towns and villages, according to France Palestine Solidarité. The same source says the Israeli army closed all entrances to Jericho and the King Hussein Bridge, which connects the West Bank to Jordan, in both directions with metal barriers and military checkpoints, and it also sealed the doors of the Al-Aqsa Mosque as Israeli forces expelled worshippers after the dawn prayer.
In Gaza, France Palestine Solidarité reports that Israeli airstrikes targeted a group of civilians south of Deir al-Balah, a house in a refugee camp in Nuseirat, and a group of civilians at the Sanfour crossroads east of the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, while Israeli artillery fire struck the residential town of Hamad in Khan Younis. The source adds that Nasser Hospital, the second largest in the Gaza Strip, is at risk of having to close, with Israel ordering the evacuation of medical services, and it warns that its closure could lead to the collapse of the entire medical infrastructure relied on by about a million Gazans in the south.
UN ceasefire vote and journalist expulsions
France Palestine Solidarité says the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and urging nations to take “all necessary measures” to pressure Israel, after the United States vetoed a similar initiative at the Security Council last week. The same report states the General Assembly adopted the non-binding resolution by 149 votes to 12, with 19 abstentions, and it says the text calls for “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” captured during the October 7 attacks.
In occupied Jerusalem, Sada News agency reports that Israeli occupation forces arrested journalist Ahmad Glajal in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday evening and took him to one of their centers, and it says the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned the escalating assault campaign against Palestinian journalists. Al-Jazeera Net adds that Israeli occupation authorities decided on Wednesday to expel two Palestinian journalists from Al-Aqsa Mosque effective as of yesterday, Wednesday, after they were arrested inside the mosque during the Eid al-Adha prayer, and it quotes journalist Saif Al-Qawasmi describing receiving the expulsion order after his arrest inside the mosque shortly before the Eid al-Adha prayers.