TEHRAN- A Gaza-based group has carried out military drills in preparation to join the West Bank resistance.

The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad organization has concluded wide-scale and sophisticated maneuvers in the besieged Gaza Strip on the backdrop of daily Israeli atrocities and aggressions against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The al-Quds Brigades announced the conclusion of the "Loyalty to the Revolutionaries" exercises, dubbed after the newly formed resistance groups in the occupied territories. 

According to the Islamic Jihad organization, the maneuvers were conducted by "an advanced cadre in the al-Quds Brigades, from various military formations."

Reports have cited sources as saying that the maneuver was carried out in more than 20 locations in the Gaza Strip, noting that each location carried out a specific operational mandate.

The drills come within the framework of raising the combat readiness of the group's forces and was executed just a few meters away from the heavily fortified Israeli separation wall that splits Gaza from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a speech following the conclusion of the military drills, Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades, revealed that a large number of "loyal and heroic fighters had taken part in the exercises," and that they spent "long days of preparation, training, using equipment, and simulation of multiple operational scenarios and plans, to deal with the Israeli occupation army."

Abu Hamza sent a message from the blockaded coastal enclave to all the newly formed resistance units and factions in the occupied West Bank, addressing in particular "the heroes of the Lions' Den and the Jenin Brigade" pledging that "we are with you shoulder to shoulder".

He emphasized that the "Loyalty to the Revolutionaries" maneuver was conducted, as a duty, to show the movement's loyalty to the martyrs and heroes in the revolting West Bank, and within the framework of preparation and fighting in all arenas, within Palestine's one geography, until the liberation of all Palestinian lands."

Abu Hamza added, "We and yourselves make up the unity in all the battlefield arenas and together we, the struggling and loyal Palestinian people, will fight together and we will win together, and our words will be reserved without any hesitation for our bullets against the occupation." 

The spokesman revealed that that the "Loyalty to the Revolutionaries" maneuver included missile and artillery units firing towards hypothetical targets in which accurate results were achieved. In addition to the live ammunition military maneuver, in which multiple combat units of the al-Quds Brigades participated, the drills also simulated the reality of war and fighting against the enemy.

The maneuver reflected the high military efficiency of the forces, he pointed out, adding they "represent the spearhead of the defense of Palestine, from its river to its sea."

And he stressed that the aggression of the Israeli regime will only increase resistance fighters’ "inflammation and ferocity" in the al-Quds Brigades and its military cells in Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, Qabatiya, al-Khalil, Balata, Jaba', even Aqbat Jabr in Jericho and everywhere "with the unlimited bounty of the martyrs."

Despite the cruel daily Israeli invasions of Palestinian towns and villages, there has been a sharp rise in the number of armed Palestinian retaliatory operations targeting Israeli soldiers.

In the latest assault, on Sunday, Israeli troops fatally shot three Palestinian men close to the Sarra Israeli military checkpoint, southwest of Nablus.

Since the beginning of this year alone, Israeli special troops as well as settlers have shot dead at least 85 Palestinians.

But the increased armed resistance emerging from the occupied West Bank has also become a serious dilemma for Israel. Reports indicate that "60% of the Israeli army" and all its battalions, military divisions and tanks are in the West Bank, and yet they cannot give their soldiers safety.

Israeli analysts themselves have highlighted that a large part of the Israeli army is currently being deployed in the West Bank in "ongoing security missions," noting that this "comes at the expense of training." 

In a separate statement, the Islamic Jihad said “the blood of these martyrs will intensify the armed struggle against the occupying Israeli regime,” adding that Palestinians are determined to continue their path with great sacrifices.

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, in a speech during a memorial service for the martyrs of Jenin and its refugee camp, warned that "the resistance brigades along the West Bank will fight the occupation until they expel it."

He pointed out that the resistance in the occupied West Bank is extending and growing from Nablus to Tubas, Tulkarem, Jaba', Qabatiya, Burqin, and Silat al-Harithiya to Ariha (Jericho)."

Last year, the al-Quds Brigades bombed large areas of Tel Aviv and the central cities in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as all the settlements encircling the Gaza Strip, with large rocket barrages in a three-day long battle initiated by Israel. 

Al-Nakhalah says the time has come to put any tiny difference aside while calling for a united resistance front "so that the sounds of the bullets, and the voice of the Palestinian people fills the horizon." He stressed the need for all Palestinian forces to be at a level of responsibility and at the level of the ambition of the Palestinian people, their sacrifices, and their willingness to fight, stressing that this matter will happen through bypassing the very narrow partisanship.

He highlighted how "martyrs have made the Jenin camp and Nablus an icon of resistance, and a torch that lit a night that had spanned years, so the Jenin battalion and its knights are the real heroes."

The occupation forces do not take to the streets of the West Bank without the backing of the regime's air force. 

They are using the most sophisticated modern spy programs in the world to identify faces and pursue the Palestinians.

Despite this, the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency has failed to recognize members of the resistance. And it has not anticipated the intensity of the Palestinian retaliatory operations.

The Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad says the resistance brigades in the occupied West Bank have "succeeded in obstructing the Zionist colonial project to control our land."

In a message to the Israeli occupation, he declared that "either we or you are in this country, that is ours, and we will fight you until you leave because our stubborn and heroic people will not kneel down before you and will never surrender."
 
Regional news media outlets affiliated with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza have recently cited informed sources as saying that the "Islamic Jihad movement has a weapon that breaks the equation of power" with the Israeli occupation. 

This is while Israeli media are debating about how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new cabinet would weaken the Israeli army and increase tensions in the West Bank.