Hamas Claims Responsibility for Tunnel Checkpoint Attack in West Bank

Hamas West Bank military wing claimed responsibility for the storming of the tunnel checkpoint south of Jerusalem this morning, leaving several dead and other wounded among the ranks of the Israeli army and destroying a number of its military vehicles.

Israeli reports said that one soldier was killed, while five others were injured during the attack.

Al-Qassam Brigades explained in a statement: "The West Bank Brigades wing declares its responsibility for the operation to storm the tunnel checkpoint south of occupied Jerusalem this morning, in which a group raided the enemy forces at the military checkpoint separating northern Bethlehem and southern occupied Jerusalem, and they were able to kill and wound a number of Zionist soldiers, in retaliation for the blood of the martyrs in the proud Gaza.”

The leader of the Hamas movement Osama Hamdan confirmed in a press conference in Beirut Thursday that "Al-Qassam Brigades were able to damage 33 enemy vehicles during the last 48 hours.”

He stressed that the Israeli forces "committed a brutal war crime with their attacks on the Shifa Medical Complex," stressing that "the occupation's story regarding its alleged evidence is ridiculous and farcical. It also failed to prove it and that it represents a scandal to it in all its aspects."

He added: "It is not reasonable to store weapons next to MRI machines in any hospital, as the occupation claims. It was the enemy forces who brought the alleged weapons in boxes to Al-Shifa Hospital."