The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has called for mass protests in the coming days to demand the opening of the Rafah border crossing and an end to the Israeli regime’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

In a statement on Thursday, the movement called on Palestinian people in the occupied territories and across the world, as well as all the Arab and Muslim world, to stage mass protests on Friday and Sunday under the slogan “Open the Rafah crossing” and “Stop the genocidal war on Gaza.”

“We call on our people throughout the homeland and outside, and on all the members of the Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, to intensify the popular mobilization in the coming days, and to demonstrate actively on Friday and Sunday under the slogan ‘Open the Rafah crossing’ and ‘Stop the genocidal war on Gaza,’” a statement from the group reads.

It added that the call comes “in light of the horrific massacres and the genocidal war” committed by the occupying Israeli regime and its “Nazi army” against unarmed Palestinian civilians, particularly children and women.

The call for protests comes amid the continued closure of border crossings and Israel’s prevention of the entry of fuel, relief supplies, and urgent medical materials through the Rafah crossing.

The call also coincides with the announcement of the “collapse of the healthcare system” in the Gaza Strip, which threatens to deepen the humanitarian disaster experienced by people in the besieged Gaza, further said the statement.

The Rafah border crossing is the only lifeline for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, who have been deprived of food, water, medicine and fuel due to the Israeli blockade.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led resistance groups launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack into the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

According to medical sources in Gaza, the number of Palestinians killed in the besieged Strip has risen to more than 7,000, including 2,704 children and 1,584 women.

In a statement posted on Telegram messaging app on Thursday, head of Hamas’ political bureau Ismail Haniyeh hailed a move by Russia and China to veto a US-draft resolution in the UN Security Council on the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel.

It added that Haniyeh “highly assesses” the stance of Russia and China in the Security Council and their blocking of the US-proposed draft resolution backing the Israeli regime.

“He (Haniyeh) also expresses gratitude to all countries both within the Security Council and outside it who called for stopping the aggression against our Palestinian people in Gaza,” the movement said.

It urged the international community to compel Israel to respect human rights with respect to “the Palestinian people both in the Gaza Strip and in entire Palestine.”

Russia and China on Wednesday vetoed a US-drafted UN Security Council resolution that had said Israel, which has killed more than 7,000 people as part of its ongoing war on Gaza, has been acting in “self-defense.”

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said earlier that Moscow sees no sense in the document and will not support it.

The United Arab Emirates also voted no, while 10 members voted in favor and Brazil and Mozambique abstained.

With the UN Security Council deadlock, the 193-member UN General Assembly will vote on Friday on a draft resolution put forward by Arab states and others calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Several Palestinians also lost their lives in Israeli bombings in separate bombings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen news channel reported on Thursday.

It said more than 17 people, including women and children, were martyred in an Israeli bombing on a house and their bodies were transferred to Nasser Medical Complex Hospital in Khan Yunis. It added that around 20 people were also wounded following Israel’s air raids.

Furthermore, three members of another family were martyred after their house was targeted west of the city of Khan Yunis.

Meanwhile, five Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her child, were martyred and several others wounded in the al-Zawaida area after an Israeli air raid on their house.

An Israeli air raid on two other homes also killed and injured several Palestinians.