RAMALLAH, (PIC)
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has said that the Israeli occupation army’s deployment of tanks in the northern West Bank for the first time in over 20 years reflects the ferocity of resistance its forces are facing.
In a statement on Sunday, Mardawi described the Israeli army’s escalation of its military assault on the northern West Bank as “psychological warfare” and a “desperate attempt to undermine the popular incubator and the resistance.”
Mardawi expressed his belief that the Israeli occupation would fail miserably to achieve its goals in the occupied West Bank.
“The occupation’s use of tanks and new weapons in its confrontation with the resistance in the northern West Bank has proved that Israeli armored vehicles received direct hits from the resistance’s explosive devices that have become a nightmare for its soldiers and war machine,” the Hamas official said.
He affirmed that the resistance would remain vigilant and would succeed in foiling the Israeli occupation’s annexation and Judaization plans.
On Sunday morning, the Israeli war ministry deployed a number of tanks in some areas of the northern West Bank for the first time since 2002 years, announcing it was expanding its large-scale attack on Palestinian citizens and their property there.
Palestinian media outlets published images showing three Merkava tanks near the West Bank city of Jenin.
For his part, war minister Israel Katz, said he had instructed the army to stay for at least the next year in the West Bank refugee camps that have been cleared of gunmen and civilians, and to not allow some 40,000 displaced Palestinians to return to their homes.
The Israeli army confirmed the media reports a short while later, saying that a platoon from the 188th armored brigade was preparing to operate in Jenin “as part of the offensive effort.”
An armored corps platoon normally consists of two or three tanks.
The Israeli army said its tank deployment came as it expanded its ongoing major attack on the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, which was launched on January 21.
As part of its massive displacement and destruction activities in the northern West Bank, the Israeli army said that its troops from the Nahal infantry brigade and the Duvdevan commando unit started raiding several villages near Jenin.
