Press TV - Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups have pledged to take revenge for a recent Israeli act of aggression on the blockaded coastal enclave that left three Hamas fighters dead.

In a statement released on Thursday, Hamas’ military wing, Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, said it had ordered its divisions “to raise the alertness to the maximum degree.”

“Israel will pay in blood for its latest crimes,” the statement read.

It came hours after Israeli tank and artillery fire in the southeast of the Gaza Strip killed the Hamas fighters and left another in critical condition.

Qassam said the three were members of its unit patrolling the fence separating Gaza from the Israeli-occupied territories.

The Israeli military said that it had targeted Hamas military posts in response to Palestinian sniper fire at its soldiers. An Israeli officer was wounded in the fresh Gaza flare-up.

Separately, al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, said in a statement that the latest Israeli crime in Gaza would not go unpunished, stressing that all options were being considered to respond to the violence.





Moreover, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians should not be met with silence.

He said in a statement on Twitter that resistance factions in Gaza would spare no effort to protect the Palestinian people and respond to any Israeli aggression.
“The resistance will not abandon its duty in defending its people and protect them and respond to (Israel’s) aggression,” he said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Palestinians in Gaza under the pretext of hitting Hamas targets. The Gaza Strip has also been under an inhumane Israeli siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008.

Tensions have been running high near the Gaza fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests, dubbed “The Great March of Return,” demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.