The Gaza-based movement made the comment in a statement on Monday after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin alleged that by waging the war on Gaza, Israel was exercising its “bedrock right” to “self-defense.”
The American official, who was speaking at a press conference with an Israeli minister also reiterated the “unshakable” commitment of the United States to support the Israeli regime in its war.
“The statements made by the American War Minister Lloyd Austin over the remains of nearly 20,000 martyrs and tens of thousands of wounded, [and] amidst [Israel’s] deliberate bombing of hospitals, schools, medical centers, ambulance crews, journalist teams, residential buildings, and refugee tents, are a brazen American blessing for the Zionist enemy to continue its barbaric and Nazi crimes against our people,” the Islamic Jihad said.
The movement added that Austin’s repetition of Washington’s claim that Tel Aviv is defending itself “is a confirmation that the United States is the main party managing the occupying regime and its criminal military machine.”
The Islamic Jihad affirmed that the US defense secretary’s support for the Israeli aggression on Gaza “exposes the falsehood” of all so-called political propositions promoted by the US administration for cessation of hostilities in Gaza.
The Zionist regime started its military aggression against Gaza on October 7 following an operation by the territory’s Resistance groups, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Some 19,500 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in Israel’s strikes so far.
As the regime’s most dedicated ally, the US has supplied it with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment since the onset of the aggression.
Washington has also cast its veto against all the United Nations Security Council resolutions that called for the implementation of an immediate ceasefire across the besieged Palestinian territory.
AMK/PressTV
