The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, “has footage of the Israeli commander being killed,” Hamas’s leader of the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar said while addressing a crowd during a ceremony honoring the seven martyrs of the brigades killed during a firefight on Sunday with Israeli forces.
Sinwar said Hamas was determined to break the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza and provide the Palestinian people with a prosperous life.
“We will not allow the siege to continue. The enemy has realized that our calm following the attacks targeting Gaza they have conducted since 2014 is not in vain,” Sinwar said.
“Our missiles are more precise, have a greater range and carry more explosives than in the past,” he added.
During the ceremony, Sinwar pulled out a handgun with a silencer, and claimed it belonged to one of the Israeli Special Forces troops that entered Gaza in a botched operation on Sunday.
Sinwar warned that if Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip again, then would only be set free for a prisoner exchange of “thousands of prisoners.”
Seven Palestinians were martyred, including Hamas military commander Nour Baraka, when an Israeli force staged a raid in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. An Israeli soldier was killed and another injured in the raid.
Since Sunday, at least 14 Palestinians have been martyred by Israeli airstrikes and artillery across the blockaded territory.
Tensions appeared to ease slightly late Tuesday after Israel and Gaza-based resistance factions agreed to an Egypt-brokered ceasefire.
Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
