Israeli forces are seen at the scene of a car bomb explosion at the Gush Etzion Junction in the occupied West Bank on August 31, 2024. (Photo via social media)

Ramallah, September 1 (RHC)--  Palestinian resistance groups have commended two separate retaliatory car bomb explosions that targeted the illegal Israeli settlements of Gush Etzion and Karmei Tzur in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

According to the Israeli military, a car exploded at a gas station near the Gush Etzion junction in the first incident Friday. Troops dispatched to the scene shot dead a Palestinian, who had arrived in the vehicle and who purportedly attempted to attack them.

In the second incident, which occurred about 20 minutes later, another Palestinian breached into the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement, before being shot dead. The Palestinian man’s car exploded inside the community.

Media reports said at least three Israeli settlers were injured in the two separate attacks.  Hamas said in a statement that the operations send a clear message that the resistance front will remain firm, strong and resilient as long as Israel continues its brutalities and acts of aggression against the Palestinian nation and occupied territories.

“The qualitative operations have profound significance as they were carried out in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil, and came at a critical moment as the occupying entity has stepped up its aggression in the northern side of the West Bank, and intensified its massacres and genocide in the West Bank.

“These operations remind the Zionist regime of the fact that it cannot partition any part of our homeland, and that our people and heroic resistance fighters will surprise Israel anywhere and anytime,” the statement read.

Hamas noted that the coordinated car bomb explosions represent a new blow to the Israeli security apparatus, and highlights that illegal settlers cannot enjoy security on occupied Palestinian lands and will continue to receive more painful strikes from Palestinian resistance fighters.

“We call upon our people and resistance groups to further confront and respond to the ongoing Israeli crimes. We are in the midst of the blessed al-Aqsa Storm battle, and must therefore unite all our efforts in order to deter the occupying Israeli regime and thwart its fiendish plots.” 

For its part, the Islamic Jihad resistance movement dismissed as “a futile attempt” the Israeli media outlets’ campaign to downplay the repercussions of the operations.

“Their made-up stories will not change the reality. These attempts only reveal that the operations have put the Zionist entity’s security and political services to shame,” the Gaza-based group said.

“We reaffirm that the enemy’s attempts to eliminate the resistance front, whether in the West Bank or Gaza, will fail. An end to the crimes being committed by the criminal Israeli regime is the core issue of surprise operations launched by resistance groups,” it said in a statement.

The Palestinian Freedom Movement also stated that the operations are indicative of the fact that resistance fighters are present in all areas and that they are the ones who decide the timing, location and manner of their retaliatory attacks.

“We urge our people and resistance fighters to conduct more heroic operations in response to the Zionist regime’s Nazi crimes, and step up actions aimed at jamming up the Israeli war machine. Through the establishment of deterrence, the occupying regime’s aggression and malicious plans could be foiled,” it said in a statement.

Since Israel unleashed a war on the besieged Gaza Strip in early October 2023, casualties have been rising in the West Bank as a result of intensified near-daily Israeli raids into villages and cities in the occupied territories.

According to Palestinian health officials, at least 670 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the outbreak of the war on Gaza. 

Nineteen Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during raids over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.  On Saturday, Israel pressed on with a large-scale invasion of the West Bank for a fourth day on Saturday, as fierce fighting raged in the nearly 11-month Gaza war.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli troops since Wednesday in raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.

The dead included an 82-year-old man, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, and two teenagers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which said another 55 had been wounded since the launch of the Israeli operation.

Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camps.   In Gaza, Israel pushed forward with its onslaught despite a three-day pause announced by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) for polio vaccinations.  

Gaza's civil defense agency said its rescuers pulled 29 bodies from the rubble since dawn and transported dozens of wounded to hospitals across the devastated Palestinian territory.