Arab states rushing to normalize relations with Israel to rue decision: Houthi

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in a televised speech broadcast from Sana’a on Friday to mark International Quds Day, said the “losers” who seek normalization of ties with the Israeli regime “will soon be regretful”.

“We are now witnessing the fruits of resistance against enemies in Palestinian territories, Lebanon, and Yemen,” the leader of the Yemeni resistance movement asserted, while paying glowing tributes to the Palestinian resistance fighters.

He noted that the massive International Quds Day events across the Muslim world demand serious consideration, thanking the Yemeni nation for participating in large numbers in Friday’s rallies.

“Submission and complete inaction towards the enemy is wrong in every sense of the word," Houthi remarked, noting that people in some Muslim countries are helpless and unable to assert their position on the Palestinian cause because of their regimes' “repressive stance on the matter”.

Every year, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, worldwide rallies are held to commemorate International Quds Day as an affirmation of support and solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle to free the occupied territories from the Israeli control.

The annual event is seen as an opportunity by the campaigners of truth and justice across the world, regardless of religious and regional affiliations, to voice their support for the Palestinian cause and denounce the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv, which has occupied Palestinian territories since 1967.

International Quds Day is among the legacies of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Imam Khomeini, who is revered as a spiritual and revolutionary leader by Muslims across the world.

Soon after the Islamic revolution in 1979, which saw the overthrow of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in Iran, Imam Khomeini dedicated the last Friday of the month of Ramadan to the Palestinian cause, naming it ‘International Quds Day.

The day has over the years become a psychological mechanism for peace and freedom lovers across the world to speak truth to power and voice support for the oppressed everywhere.

“Those who ally themselves with the Israeli enemy are actually compromising fundamental principles. The Israeli enemy and Zionist lobbies are behind the destabilization of the Muslim Ummah. They want to weaken Muslims and bring them to the point of subjugation,” Houthi said in his Quds Day speech.

“Negligence and ignorance toward the Israeli enemy will not repel imminent dangers threatening Muslim nations, and will not absolve people of their responsibilities [towards the Palestinian issue]. Those helping the Israeli enemy and [normalizing ties with it] are seen as a cash cow,” he added.

Hamas: Israeli guard’s killing response to al-Aqsa attacks 
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has hailed as “heroic operation” the killing of an Israeli guard at the entrance to illegal settlement of Ariel in the central part of occupied West Bank.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem called it a response to the Israeli forces’ unabated attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds.

“The operation in Ariel settlement highlights that revolution has spread across the West Bank. It signifies that the occupiers' measures against young Palestinians’ insistence on confrontation are failing,” he said.

The Israeli military early on Saturday announced that Palestinian assailants shot and killed a security guard at the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank late on Friday.

Footage captured by security cameras in the area showed the attackers getting off their vehicle and riddling the guard post there with bullets before fleeing the scene, The Times of Israel reported.

“When we arrived at the scene, we saw a man in his twenties unconscious with gunshot wounds, he was not breathing and had no pulse,” a medic with the Magen David Adom ambulance service was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Israeli army has launched a far-and-wide manhunt for the assailants.

Following the incident, Israeli military forces also reportedly closed the entrance to the city of Salfit, which is situated to the north of the settlement.