Palestinian resistance launches Operation al-Quds Sword as Israeli airstrikes kill 27 in Gaza

Palestinian resistance factions say they have launched ‘Operation al-Quds Sword’ in retaliation for the Zionist regime’s acts of aggression against Palestinians in al-Quds, saying their goal is to liberate the holy city from Israeli occupation.

The factions operating under the Joint Operations Room announced in a statement that resistance fighters have fired hundreds of rockets towards the occupied territories as part of the operation.

The rocket fire was in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s raids on al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, they said.

“Operational-Quds Sword is meant to achieve the liberation of the holy city, and is in response to the Occupation’s crimes against its residents as well as cries by its freedom-loving locals,” the statement stressed.

Israeli sources confirmed that as many as 250 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the occupied territories, adding the Israeli military conducted waves of bombardments against 130 targets in the besieged enclave, that they claimed killed 15 Hamas members.

The Joint Operations Room said Palestinian resistance factions launched precise strikes against Israeli-occupied lands, struck an Israeli car near the Gaza border and later carried out intense missile strikes against targets in the coastal city of Tel Aviv in addition to other places.

The armed wing of Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement has staged a massive rocket launch against the occupied territories, with attacks expected to still grow in scale and extent.

The Palestinian Information Center reported on Tuesday that the barrage targeted the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon that lie to the north of the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas.

The rocket launch saw as many as 137 of the projectiles being flown towards the cities in just five minutes, the Hamas’ branch said.

“In response to the enemy’s action to target the houses and members of the resistance, we staged the biggest-ever attack against” the cities, it noted.

The regime’s so-called Iron Dome missile system reportedly intercepted some of the rockets, but some directly hit the buildings in the targeted areas.

Five people were injured in the rocket barrage and a number of buildings were damaged, the Palestinian Shehab news agency cited the Israeli regime’s Kan broadcasting company as reporting.

Earlier, the Israeli air force took areas in the north and south of the Gaza Strip under fire, killing 25 Palestinians.

The bloodletting was the worst to hit the enclave in a relatively long period of time. It came amid the occupying regime’s early Ramadan-present brutal crackdown on Palestinian worshipers in the holy occupied city of Jerusalem al-Quds and its attempts to force Palestinians out of the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The coastal sliver’s resistance factions have announced “Operation al-Quds Sword” in retaliation for the Israeli aggression in al-Quds. They have specified the city’s liberation from Israeli occupation as the goal of the operation.

Before the Tuesday strike against Ashdod and Ashkelon, the groups fired hundreds of rockets against the occupied territories, some flying as far as al-Quds itself.