Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday that Palestinians "will not sit with their arms crossed" in the face of Israeli "aggression" against the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
He was speaking in Beirut after Israel blamed Palestinian militants for firing a barrage of rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel.
Haniyeh, who arrived in the Lebanese capital a day earlier, met on Thursday the heads of other Palestinian organisations as Israel threatened a military response to the rocket fire.
"Our Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance groups will not sit idly by" in the face of Israel's "savage aggression" against Al-Aqsa, Haniyeh said in a statement after the meeting.
Israel accused Palestinian groups of firing 34 rockets from Lebanon on the Jewish Passover holiday, a day after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians inside Islam's third-holiest site.
The violence in Jerusalem was widely denounced by neighbouring states and several Palestinian groups vowed they would respond.
In his statement, Haniyeh called on "all Palestinian organisations to unify their ranks and intensify their resistance against the Zionist occupation (Israel)".
Earlier, Israeli army spokesperson Lt. Colonel Richard Hecht said Palestinian groups were responsible for the rocket barrage.
"We know for sure it's Palestinian fire," he told reporters. "It could be Hamas, it could be Islamic Jihad, we are still trying to finalise but it wasn't Hezbollah."
The Shiite militant group effectively controls southern Lebanon and enjoys good relations with Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, and the Islamic Jihad group also based in the enclave.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
5 Soldiers Critically Injured In Encounter With Terrorists In J&K's Doda
22 Killed In Israeli Strikes On Gaza School, Petrol Station: Hamas Palestine Embassy Thanks India For First Tranche Of $2.5 Million For Refugees Israel Used US Bombs In Strike On Gaza's "Safe Zone" That Killed 92 Trainee IAS Officer Puja Khedkar Recalled To Academy, Training Put On Hold What Trump Rally Shooter Did On Last Day Of His Life Under-Fire Trainee IAS Officer Accuses Pune Collector Of Harassment Finish Migrant Workers' Ration Card Verification In 1 Month: Court To States IMF Raises India's GDP Growth Forecast To 7% For 2024-25 Goa's Law And Order Deteriorating, Cops Visit Casinos: Opposition Leader Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.