Hamas official: Terror groups’ response will teach Israel a ‘major lesson’

An official from the Hamas terror group says Israel will see a unified response from terror groups that will “teach it a major lesson.”

“The leadership of the resistance has put all options on the table, based on the assessment that the enemy started the battle at the time of their choosing, in order to bring the resistance into the campaign under the title ‘reaction to the elimination [of the Palestinian Jihad chiefs]’ and not about the crimes it intends to carry out in the [Jerusalem Day] Flag March on May 18,” the unnamed official tells the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper.

The official also says “the response will be unified through the joint military of the resistance factions, and it will teach Israel a great lesson.”

“The responses will not be limited to a certain faction, but all fronts are to participate,” says the official from the terror group that controls the Gaza Strip.

The heavily guarded Jerusalem Day Flag March has become an increasingly combustible issue for Israel, drawing tens of thousands of national religious youth to mark the anniversary of Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War.

The annual event drives fears of aggravated tensions with Palestinians. Two years ago, the march played a role in touching off a brief war with Gaza-based terrorists, and last year, it saw sporadic clashes and hundreds of participants were filmed chanting “Death to Arabs” and other racist and Islamophobic slogans.