Israel’s PM to face defeat in Gaza ‘greater than what he fears’: Hamas

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Gaza-based movement’s military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, issued the warning after Netanyahu announced what he claimed to be the “second stage” of a ground incursion by the Israeli army into Gaza.

“We are still waiting for him,” Abu Ubaida said in a video statement on Sunday.

“We will make him taste, by the strength of God, a defeat greater than what he expects or fears,” he added.

The al-Qassam spokesman also hit out at Arab countries for a lack of humanitarian assistance to the besieged Gaza Strip and stated the occupying regime was to blame for the failure to achieve an agreement over a prisoner swap with Palestinians.

“To the leaders of our Arab nations…We do not ask you to mobilize your armies and tanks, God forbid, to defend the children of Arabs and Islam in Gaza,” Abu Ubaida continued, adding “But have you reached the point where you cannot send relief and humanitarian aid?”

The spokesman stressed that there were “numerous contacts regarding the prisoner issue,” and a chance to strike a deal; however, Israel was not willing to agree to the terms of the agreement, which focused on the release of 200 Israeli captives being held by the brigades, as well the rest who were kept by other Palestinian resistance factions.

The al-Qassam Brigades previously announced that around 50 of the captives had been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza.

Israel has been waging a barbaric war against Gaza since October 7, when Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups launched their biggest operation against Israel in years. The sneak attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, came in response to the regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli war has so far claimed the lives of over 8,000 innocent Palestinians, including more than 3,500 children, and left upwards of 20,500 others wounded.

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution on Friday, calling for the implementation of an immediate “humanitarian truce” in Gaza.

The vote at the General Assembly came after the United Nations Security Council failed four times in the past two weeks to take action due to the US’s recurrently casting its veto against relevant resolutions.

The assembly stressed the “importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region,” calling on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint and upon all those with influence on them to work toward this objective.”

Israel has rejected all calls for a ceasefire, claiming it would benefit Hamas.