Tel Aviv cancels Jerusalem al-Quds parade following Hamas warning

The so-called march of the flags was planned to take place and to proceed through flashpoint spots of the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds on Thursday this week, but police canceled the parade on Monday.

“Police refused to give us an authorization,” a spokesperson for one of the groups organizing the march said, prompting a cancellation of the parade.

Israeli police also said in a brief statement that “the current route at this time is not approved.”

#عاجل الاحتلال يقرر بشكل رسمي إلغاء مسيرة الأعلام للمستوطنين المقررة يوم الخميس المقبل
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 7, 2021

The police statement and the subsequent cancellation of the parade came after Khalil Hayya, a senior Hamas figure, warned the march could spark new violence in the region.

“We warn the occupation (Israel) against letting the March approach East Jerusalem [a-Quds] and al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Thursday,” Hayya said, expressing hope that “the message is clear so that Thursday doesn't become (a new) May 10.”

“We clearly say to the mediators and the international community that the time has come to restrain the occupying regime, otherwise the thunderbolts and the responses of the resistance will remain strong. We are not interested in war, but we want freedom, independence, and stability in our land,” the Hamas official further warned.

According to a report by AFP, Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Benny Gantz had urged police to cancel the march over concerns it could reignite fighting.

The recent war, Israel’s fourth against the besieged Gaza Strip, was launched on May 10, after the enclave rose up in protest against Tel Aviv’s escalations in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 260 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli war, including 66 children.

An Egyptian-brokered truce that came into force in the wee hours of May 21 finally ended the apartheid regime’s war.

The ceasefire came after the Gaza-based resistance movements fired more than 4,000 rockets into the occupied territories, some reaching as far as Tel Aviv and even Haifa and Nazareth to the north, in response to the Israeli bloodshed.

Following the announcement, the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, issued a statement, noting that cancellation of the so-called “march of flags” is another defeat for the enemy, following Israel's failure in its latest military onslaught against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamas noted that the development was a further step toward establishment of the new equation in the occupied territories and further highlights the fact that the situation in Jerusalem al-Quds is a red line for all Palestinian resistance groups.

On Saturday, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya al-Sinwar, warned that another flare-up between the Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli regime will change the face of the Middle East region.

Sinwar, who was addressing a gathering of academics and public figures in Gaza, added that Palestinian groups used only "half of their force" in the latest conflict with the Israeli regime in May, adding that the fighting was meant only "to test our strength."

"We've proven to Israel that somebody's protecting al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a strategic goal for the Palestinians," he said.