Muhammad Sinwar, the brother of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Friday that the terrorist group's military wing attempted to abduct Israeli soldiers in the early stages of last year's Operation Guardian of the Walls, for the purpose of "forcing Israel to agree to a prisoner exchange."
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During "Operation Guardian of the Wall" last May, Hamas fired more than 4,300 rockets into Israel, killing 15 Israelis and wounding hundreds.
"When we warn Israel, every word has its equivalent in actions on the ground. We know how to go after Israel and put pressure on them," said Muhammad Sinwar.
His comments came days after a Hamas official threatened Israel ahead of Sunday's annual Jerusalem Day flag march.
During the interview, Sinwar's face was blacked out to conceal his face.
During Operation Guardian of the Walls, he continued, intelligence officers from Hamas' military wing, Hezbollah, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps all worked together in a joint command and control center inside the Gaza Strip.
"We established important equations. For us, firing missiles at Tel Aviv is easier than drinking water. We fulfilled our promise to Jerusalem. The enlistment of the Arab Israeli front created shock in the country and new hope for our people. We are telling the free world, Al-Aqsa is waiting for you, wait for the signal," he told Al-Jazeera.
Sinwar claimed during the interview that Israel has tried assassinating him on several occasions, including over the past year.
He also claimed that a major Israeli ruse that used fake maneuvers to create the impression of an imminent Gaza land incursion in order to drive Hamas fighters into a vast network of underground defense tunnels that were then pounded from the air, had also failed.
"Not a single one of our fighters was harmed in the plan," Sinwar said of the massive attack on what Israeli officials described as the "metro" system of hundreds of kilometers of underground tunnels in Gaza.
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