EXCLUSIVE – Islamic Jihad Official: We Will Respond to Israel’s Detonation of Terror Tunnel

TEL AVIV — The Islamic Jihad organization and its so-called military wing, the Al Quds Brigades, have the right to respond to the detonation of a tunnel on the Israel-Gaza border that reportedly killed 12 of the terrorist organization’s jihadists along with several Hamas members, Ahmad al-Mudallal, a member of Islamic Jihad, told Breitbart Jerusalem.

“Israel’s threats won’t stop us from responding to the crime of the occupation army,” al-Mudallal said.

Palestinian terrorist groups largely consider the entire State of Israel to be “occupied” territory. Islamic Jihad, backed by Iran, is committed to Israel’s destruction.

The Israeli army detonated a terror tunnel that Israel says was dug by both Islamic Jihad and Hamas under the Gaza border with Israel. The IDF has since raised its readiness in fear of retaliation from Islamic Jihad.

Israel deployed an Iron Dome anti-missile battery to cover central Israel while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian organizations not to test Israel and that Israel’s response to any Palestinian attempt to take revenge for the tunnel detonation would be severe.

Mudallal claimed that Palestinian “resistance” organizations – referring to terrorist groups – have full “rights to respond to the crimes of the enemy, the most recent of which was to detonate the tunnel and cause the fall of 12 martyrs from among our fighters.”

Mudallal did not seem to recognize that the IDF was acting to prevent attacks against the Jewish state or that the terror tunnel’s construction was essentially an act of war.

“The threats of the Israeli occupation reflect the state of the confusion of the leadership of the Zionist entity and the settlers and reflects the fear of a response from the resistance. The resistance won’t respond with a hand shake,” he said.

According to the Islamic Jihad terror official, “The response, its character, location and timing are a derivative of the situation on the ground and the decision to strike is in the hands of the leadership of the resistance, which is qualified to choose the option and the response.”