Hamas, Islamic Jihad Say 'Heroic' Shebaa Operation is Hizbullah 'Legitimate Right'

Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have lauded the attack carried out by Hizbullah in the Shebaa Farms on Wednesday, describing it as a “heroic” operation against the Israeli army.

“Targeting the enemy in Shebaa is the legitimate right of the resistance in the face of the occupation's arrogance and hostility,” Hamas said in a statement issued shortly after the assault.

Hizbullah had earlier announced that its “Quneitra Martyrs Group” targeted an Israeli military convoy in the Shebaa Farms, which left two troops dead and seven wounded according to the Israeli army.

The operation comes in response to a Jan. 18 Israeli air raid on a Hizbullah convoy in Syria's Quneitra which killed six Hizbullah fighters, including prominent militants, and a top Iranian general.

“This response to the occupation's crimes, the last of which was the Quneitra attack, is part of the normal response to the recurrent Zionist attacks and part of the resistance's legitimate right to confront the occupation's terrorism and belligerent practices,” Hamas added in its statement.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement hailed the attack as a “heroic operation.”

“This blessed operation has achieved direct hits, created confusion and represented a shock for (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu, who had tried to show off and achieve electoral gains,” Islamic Jihad senior official Khaled al-Batsh announced.

“The Zionist army's crisis has deepened even more after the heroic Shebaa operation,” al-Batsh added.

He described the assault as “a normal right that was practiced by the resistance to respond to the enemy's crimes.”

In Tehran, Hizbullah's main regional ally, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard reiterated that it “stands by the Islamic Resistance in all the confrontations against the Zionist entity.”

In another statement, the Revolutionary Guard noted that the death of top Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi alongside the six Hizbullah fighters in Quneitra “heralds the formation of a united Islamic front against the occupiers of Palestine's land.”

Y.R.