Gaza City, September 3 (RHC)-- A senior leader of the resistance movement Hamas has warned that the Israeli regime plots to create rift and division among Palestinian people and groups in the wake of recent blasts in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas Political Bureau, made the remarks as he was commenting on bomb attacks that killed three police officers in the coastal enclave last week. Haniyeh accused Israel of being behind the blasts in the besieged territory and said there was no room for extremism in Palestine.
He further noted that the Tel Aviv regime was seeking rift among Palestinians and Palestinian resistance groups to distract them from their main priorities. The senior Palestinian official said Israel was after gaining benefits from insecurity in Gaza in order to thrive in the upcoming elections.
Palestinians have held weekly rallies along the Gaza border to protest the siege on the enclave and demand the right for refugees to return to their homes they were forced to leave during the 1948 creation of Israel.
More than 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in Gaza on March 30, 2018. Over 16,000 Palestinians have also sustained injuries.
The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, 2018, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided with a US decision to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.
On June 13, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution, sponsored by Turkey and Algeria, which condemned Israel for Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.
The resolution, which had been put forward on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries, garnered a strong majority of 120 votes in the 193-member assembly, with eight votes against and 45 abstentions.
The resolution called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to make proposals within 60 days “on ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection, and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation,” including “recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism.”
It also called for “immediate steps towards ending the closure and the restrictions imposed by Israel on movement and access into and out of the Gaza Strip.
