Following Israel's Hostage Rescue Operation In Nuseirat And U.S. Sanctions On Lion's Den Group, Palestinian Factions Threaten To 'Surprise' America, Israel And Attack U.S. Forces Operating On Gaza Coast

The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. 

On June 7 and 8, 2024, two armed Palestinian factions – the Hamas-aligned Palestine Resistance Committees (PRC) in the Gaza Strip and the Lion's Den group based in Nablus – threatened to "surprise" the United States and Israel and to target American forces deployed on the humanitarian pier established by the U.S. on the Gaza coast. The threats come on the backdrop of the June 8, 2024 operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza in which Israeli special forces rescued four living hostages who had been taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023,[1] as well as on the backdrop of recent U.S. sanctions on the Lion's Den.[2]

This report will present the statements published by these groups on June 7 and 8.

On June 8, 2024, the PRC Information Bureau in Gaza published an official statement on its Telegram channel describing the same-day Israeli hostage rescue operation as a "terrible massacre" that "the Zionist enemy and its leaders will pay the price for." The statement said that the incident exposes "the participation of the forces of the American enemy stationed on the temporary pier [on the Gaza coast] in the murder and massacre of our people, despite the criminal American administration's insistence that the pier is meant exclusively for the transfer of humanitarian aid." It also said that "this makes the pier and all those present on it into a legitimate target for the blows of the resistance."

The group also stated that the resistance's success in holding over 130 hostages for eight months of war despite "all the technological and intelligence capabilities of the Zionist enemy and its American and Western allies" is a "true source of pride" and an "unparalleled miracle," adding that the hostage rescue operation "seriously threatens the lives of all the hostages held by the resistance factions." The group also said: "[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his gang bear direct responsibility for this."[3]

It should be noted that after the completion of the floating humanitarian pier in mid-May, the PRC and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) asserted that the U.S. is a full partner in "the Zionist genocide" against the Palestinians in Gaza, and warned against exploiting the pier to assist in the Israeli war effort or to harm the residents of the Gaza Strip. They also reiterated their threats to attack any foreign force on Gazan territory or on its coast.[4]

On June 7, 2024, the Lion's Den group issued a brief statement on its Telegram channel responding to U.S. sanctions against it. Quoting slain Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin, the group warned "America and those below it, and the [Israeli] entity and those who help them and ally with them": "We will triumph, O America. We will triumph – by Allah – even if Yajouj and Majouj, the nation of 'Ad [powerful and sinful nations mentioned in the Quran], and Pharaoh of the mighty structures fight at the side of the entity's state. We will triumph and pass through, just as [the Children of Israel] passed through [the sea]. The surprise will be greater than minds can imagine, greater than your mind or the mind of the entity or the mind of the plundering, prostrate conspirators can imagine, and this is not unlikely for Allah [to do]. We will see who will besiege whom."[5]