Hawzah News Agency - Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has held the Israeli regime responsible for the assassination of a leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in the port city of Jaffa.

“We strongly condemn the heinous crime of assassination that targeted the leader of the Islamic Movement in the city of Jaffa, the late Mohammed Abu Najm, in broad daylight,” Hamas said in a statement on Sunday, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported.

Hamas also warned of what it termed as a “malicious plan” carried out by the occupying regime to liquidate the occupied lands of Palestinian leaders and cadres.

The Times of Israel reported earlier that Abu Najm was shot dead and a second man moderately injured on Sunday when a gunman opened fire on them.

The Islamic Movement leader was critically injured in the shooting and died after he was taken to Wolfson Hospital in Holon for treatment.

The northern branch of the Islamic Movement, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, was banned by the Israeli regime in November 2015 due to close ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Back in February 2020, Sheikh Salah was sentenced by an Israeli court to 28 months in prison on charges of “fomenting incitement against Israelis and advocating violence.” He was described as “dangerous” by Israeli judge Shlomo Banjo.

“In light of Sheikh Raed Salah’s previous violations and his clear ideological motives, his activities have worsened with time,” Banjo claimed, adding, “Today, as in the past, he uses troubling speech to incite terrorism.”

Following the verdict, Hamas issued a statement, saying that the ruling “reflects the extremist and racist mentality that governs Israeli institutions, particularly Israeli courts and its judiciary.”

“Such unjust rulings against the Sheikh of al-Aqsa and many of our people in al-Quds, the West Bank and the occupied territories will not stop our people as well as national leaders and scholars from carrying on their struggle, and performing their duties as regards Palestine, its people and its sanctities,” the Palestinian resistance movement said.

Under the presidency of Donald Trump, which began on January 20, 2017 and ended on Wednesday, the Israeli regime stepped up its crimes against the Palestinian people.

Israeli authorities on Wednesday invited contractor bids for the construction of more than 2,500 settler units in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

On January 3, Israeli forces also seized vast areas of land and demolished a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, displacing several Palestinians.