Having lost a top member to what it denounces as another targeted killing by Israel, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas vows it will not “sit quietly” in the face of the “new challenge” thrown down by the regime.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was reacting to the assassination of the Gaza-based movement’s senior commander Mazen Fuqaha in a speech broadcast from Qatar on Monday.

“By killing Fuqaha, the enemy told us: ‘I’ve scored a point against you and I can take away one of your heroes even in the heart of Gaza’,” Meshaal said.

“The military and political leadership of Hamas is ready to meet the occupier’s challenge… The Zionist occupier took from us a great hero and for this we will not sit quietly,” he added.

Fuqaha, who used to direct some of the Palestinian resistance movement’s activities in the Israel-occupied West Bank, was shot dead by assailants at the entrance of his home in Gaza City on Friday night with four bullets to the head.

In a statement issued following the murder, Hamas blamed Israel and its “collaborators” for the “despicable crime.”

Meshaal further said by choosing to stage the attack within the Palestinian territory run by Hamas, Tel Aviv had “decided to change the rules of the game.”

“Our will is stronger than their weapons and we will defeat them in the end,” said the Hamas’ leader. “It’s a new blood debt that adds itself to all those before.”

Faqha, 38, had been in Israeli jail since 2003 before he was released nine years later as part of a prisoner swap between Hamas and Tel Aviv.

Israel has assassinated many Hamas figures, including the group’s leaders, officials and activists.

Tel Aviv has launched several wars on the Palestinian sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The Israeli military aggression, which ended on August 26 the same year, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.

Source: presstv.com