Hamas is prepared for a long war of attrition against Israel, the leader of the Palestinian resistance movement said Monday, as he congratulated Houthi rebels in Yemen for their missile strike on Israel.
"We have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition," the Hamas leader said, asserting that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen would "break the will of Israel" after the Houthis hit central Israel in a rare missile attack on Sunday.
Sinwar said Hamas had ample resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control northern Yemen, reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel would inflict a "heavy price" on them.
"I congratulate you on your success in reaching the depth of the enemy entity," Sinwar said in a letter to Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi.
Sinwar is leading Hamas in the war against Israel in the Gaza Strip, now in its 12th month.
The Hamas chief said that Israel's plans to neutralize the Palestinian resistance group had failed.
"I assure you that the resistance is fine. We have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition," he said.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that traveled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11-1/2 minutes.
An Israeli military official said the missile was hit by an interceptor and fragmented in the air. Missile pieces landed in fields and near a railway station. There were no direct casualties but nine people were lightly hurt while seeking cover.
Deadly Israeli attacks meanwhile raged on in the Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Israeli strikes on Monday – which the military has not commented on – killed at least two dozen people.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend the group "has a high ability to continue" fighting despite losses, noting "the recruitment of new generations" to replace killed fighters.
Sinwar, in his letter to Yemen's Huthis, threatened that Iran-aligned groups in Gaza but also elsewhere in the region including Lebanon and Iraq would "break the will of Israel" after more than 11 months of war.
Independent U.N. rights experts warned that Israel risked becoming an international "pariah" over its actions in Gaza and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.
