After almost one decade of their suspension, Palestinian bombing attacks (referred to by Western media as suicide attacks) have returned. An explosion took place in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Sunday August 18 and resulted in the death of the perpetrator, and a moderate injury sustained by an Israeli passerby.
While Israeli police and the Israeli Security Agency (also known as Shin Bet) announced on Sunday that it was difficult to identify the perpetrator, and that investigations were still underway to unveil the background of the incident, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday, August 19.
“The martyrdom operations will return to the forefront as long as the massacres, forced displacements of Palestinian civilians, and targeted assassinations by the occupation continue,” Hamas’s military wing Al-Qassam brigades said in a statement.
Although the bombing has not left casualties other than the perpetrator, the incident is considered a critical development and a serious escalation with regard to the current multi-front war that may further ignite a regional war. Such incidents have taken place during crucial turning points within the Palestinian lengthy struggle against the Israeli occupation between 1990’s and 2000s.
Media reports indicated that the perpetrator is believed to be from Nablus city in the West Bank. This means that he managed to breach all of Israel’s tightened security measures including the 708 kilometer apartheid wall, which segregates the territories occupied by Israel in 1948 from those it occupied in 1967, before he arrived in Tel Aviv to carry out the attack.
The incident also comes at a very critical time, during which Israel and its sponsor the United States are putting tremendous pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire and prisoner swap deal tailored to the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which neglects several key demands of the resistance groups to achieve minimum conditions for the Palestinian people to live in peace, dignity and liberty.
During a meeting with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the ongoing negotiations as “maybe the last chance to secure Israeli captives’ release and a Gaza ceasefire”.
“In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal, that he supports it. It is now incumbent on Hamas to do the same,” Blinken said speaking to media outlets.
Although Israel has been lavished with uninterrupted support from the US, the security and stability of the Zionist entity has been subjected to an unprecedented threat by the Axis of Resistance, namely Iran and Hezbollah with imminent large-scale attacks to be launched against it.
