Battle Against Israel Spreads Throughout Entire Occupied Territories

Tuesday, 18 May 2021 8:13 PM

Press TV  

Palestinian protesters confront Israeli troops at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank on May 18, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

The battle against the Israeli regime’s escalated atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has spread throughout the borders that used to demarcate Palestine before the regime’s 1948 invasion.

Besides Gaza and the West Bank, there were reports on Tuesday that the rest of the territories occupied by Israel were also witnessing a “general strike” and angry demonstrations.

Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television network said the enraged public had opted for the measures in support of those who have been subjected to the Israeli brutalities in Gaza and the West Bank.

The network did not mention the exact identity of those staging the new wave of protest actions, but this is not the first time since the beginning of the military campaign against Gaza that people rise up in rage against the regime beyond Gaza and the West Bank.

Such rallies have been an on-again-off-again occurrence beyond the two Palestinian territories, throughout since early May, when the regime significantly intensified its assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank, especially the holy city of al-Quds, and later ramped up its deadly attacks on Gaza.

Resistance targets two Israeli outposts

Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza, meanwhile, kept up their armed response to the Israeli attacks that, since their onset last Monday, have killed 213 Palestinians, including 61 children, 36 women, and 16 elderly people. A total of 1,442 others have also been wounded during the assaults.

The Israeli military continues its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as Palestinian resistance forces fire barrages of rockets at occupied lands in retaliation.

The Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement’s armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam specified the targets as a strategic outpost in the Mishmar HaNegev area north of the Negev desert, and another base in the southern part of the occupied territories.

Settlers desert Tel Aviv en masse

The Arab21 news website said sustained retaliatory rocket barrages from the direction of Gaza had forced many Israelis to leave Tel Aviv for illegal settlements in the West Bank.

British website The Conversation, meanwhile, ran an article by military expert Michael J. Armstrong of Brock University, in which he described the resistance’s defensive might this time around as unprecedented.

Titled, “Gaza’s enhanced rocket technology challenges Israel’s defenses,” the article said only during the first 24 hours that followed the Israeli escalation, the resistance fired 470 rockets against the occupied territories. The movements, he added, carried on by firing some 408 more projectiles every day towards the same direction.

Instead of separate small-scale attacks, the groups can now fire around 137 rockets within only five minutes, the expert added, noting that 50 percent of the projectiles had been trained on urban centers.

Also on Tuesday, the resistance movements sustained their reprisal against the cities lying near Gaza’s border, including Ashkelon, Be’er Sheba, Sderot, and Ashdod, where a building came under direct rocket fire.

They also targeted Eshkol Regional Council in north-western Negev. The Israeli regime’s medical sources said two Israelis had died and 20 others been wounded during the counterattack.