Smoke rises from Israeli air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Saturday. (AP photo)

Gaza City, September 28 (RHC)-- The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called on “Arab and Islamic nations” to act and “reject this brutal aggression” by Israel against the brotherly people of Lebanon.

On Friday, Israeli warplanes launched massive airstrikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut, killing at least eight people and wounding around 80 others.  Hours after a new wave of Israeli airstrikes hit the Dahiyeh area.

Hamas condemned in a statement issued on Friday night the “Zionist escalation and aggression” against the people of Lebanon.  “The escalating Zionist terrorism against the brotherly Lebanese people because they supported the Palestinian people and their stand against the genocide war in the Gaza Strip, and the blood spilled as a result of this Zionist criminality in both Palestine and Lebanon, requires our Arab and Islamic nation to leave the box of silence and take action by all means,” Hamas said.

The resistance movement called on “all international forums to reject the US bias and support for this brutal aggression and to triumph over the values of nobility and magnanimity in standing with the Palestinian and Lebanese people against the aggressive schemes of the Zionist occupation.”

The resistance movement said it supports the Lebanese people saying, “We share their pain and hope for victory… and appreciate their sacrifices.”

“We reiterate our absolute solidarity with the brotherly Lebanese people and the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.  We share their pain and hope for victory over this Zionist enemy, and we appreciate and commend their sacrifices and steadfastness in the epic of open account in support of our people and our resistance, and in response and defense of the brotherly Lebanese people,” the Hamas statement added.

“The occupation and its Nazi leaders are dreaming that by committing the most heinous massacres against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, or by targeting resistance leaders and men, they will achieve their malicious goals, or achieve an illusory victory that will eliminate the resistance, its strength and continuity, and the popular support for it,” it concluded.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said in a statement that Israel’s bombardment of the southern suburbs of Beirut is “a barbaric and Nazi crime.”  “The deliberate bombing of residential and civilian areas is not justified by any of the enemy's lies, and is a war crime for which all those who applauded the lies of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations are responsible,” it said.

“We are fully confident that the open account with the enemy will make it pay for its crimes soon,” Islamic Jihad added.

[ SOURCE: PRESS TV ]