Funeral of 4 Palestinian martyrs in Jenin (March 16, 2023).
Palestinians bid farewell to four martyrs who fell after Israeli occupation forces raided Jenin on Thursday.
Mass funeral were held in Jenin, hours after the attack that claimed the life of four Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy.
Among the martyrs were Nidal Hazem, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement’s Al-Quds Brigades and and Youssef Shreim, a member of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades.
Another 20 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire, four of them seriously.
Thursday’s raid saw special forces from the Israeli occupation military along with the Shin Bet security service and Border Police enter the city center in the middle of the day.
A witness said the attack started after occupation forces arrived in two cars and stopped in the middle of a street.
Media coverage: "The moment when the Israeli special force fled Jenin after carrying out today's assassination attack that claimed the life of four Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy." pic.twitter.com/57k9UacVHm
Following the raid, Palestinian resistance movements warned the Israeli enemy that the blood of the martyrs won’t go in vain, vowing that the Palestinian people will go ahead with all forms of resistance against the occupation.
Israeli raids in the West Bank have become increasingly deadly since the start of the year, with occupation forces brutally attacking the Palestinian cities and towns, causing high number of casualties.
The number of Palestinians martyred since the start of 2023 has surpassed 80, Palestinian media reported.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that at least six Palestinians were martyred in the Jenin refugee camp and several others were injured in confrontations with Israeli occupation forces as the latter simultaneously stormed Nablus, where it arrested a number of Palestinians.
Al Mayadeen correspondent in the West Bank later confirmed the martyrdom of Abd Al-Fattah Kharrousha, whom the occupation forces accuse of being behind the Huwara operation.
من بين الشهداء عبد الفتاح حسين خروشة (49 عاماً) من نابلس منفذ عملية إطلاق النار اي حوارة. pic.twitter.com/F924zM45LN
Our correspondent stated that the six martyrs belong to the Jenin Brigade of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and that they confronted the Israeli raid down to their last breath.
She also reported that the bodies of a number of martyrs were recovered from inside the house that the IOF had besieged Jenin, noting that the occupation forces were gradually withdrawing from the camp, about two hours after the raid.
Local Palestinian sources said a special Israeli force infiltrated the outskirts of Jenin using a camouflaged truck, while military vehicles headed from the Al-Jalama checkpoint toward the camp to besiege a house belonging to the family of martyr Amjad Al-Azmi.
Al Mayadeen correspondent in occupied Palestine confirmed that the occupation forces targeted ambulances and used Palestinians as human shields during the raid.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 7, 2023
According to medical sources, three injuries by Israeli gunfire arrived at Jenin Hospital, while the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the martyrdom of 26-year-old Mohammad Ghazzawi after being shot in the chest.
Journalist and political activist Mujahid Al-Saadi said Palestinian Resistance fighters shot down an occupation drone in Jenin while freedom fighter Jamal Hwail told Al Mayadeen that a second Israeli drone was shot down, adding that Israeli Apache helicopters are carrying out overflights in the airspace of Jenin.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 7, 2023
In a statement, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said its fighters are still targeting the occupation forces and their special units in the Jenin camp with bullets and explosive devices.
The Brigades said a number of its fighters were martyred while confronting the crimes of the occupation and reported several injuries among occupation forces, stressing that the Israeli crimes will be answered in “Tel Aviv”.
In Nablus, Israeli occupation forces stormed the Askar refugee camp and arrested three Palestinian brothers, Khaled, Abed, and Qassam Kharrousha, after besieging their house in the city, as per Al Mayadeen correspondent in the West Bank. The IOF took the brothers to an unknown destination.
The IOF completely shut down all entrances to the city of Nablus.
Moreover, the released prisoner, Muhammad Jaradat, confirmed to Al Mayadeen that the occupation forces arrested two Palestinian doctors in Nablus during the raid.
Our correspondent said dozens of Israeli suicide drones are spread over the West Bank.
The stormings of Jenin and Nablus come a few hours after illegal Israeli settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli occupation soldiers.
Palestinian Presidency: Daily killings of Palestinians is an all-out war
The spokesperson for the Palestinian Presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said today, Tuesday, that “the daily killings committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people, the latest of which took place today in the Jenin camp, is an all-out war and amount to a full-scale systematic destruction.”
He pointed out that the crime committed by the occupation forces reaffirms the occupation government’s endeavor to thwart all regional and international efforts aimed at stopping such actions.
The Palestinian Presidency Spokesperson called on the US administration to take immediate action and put effective pressure on the Israeli occupation government to stop its crimes and continued aggression against Palestinians.
He stressed that resolving the Palestinian issue in accordance with international law and giving the Palestinian people their right to freedom and independence is key to resolving the region’s crises.
On its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today that the massacres and attacks of the Israeli occupation in Jenin and Nablus confirm that the IOF have opted for escalation, holding the Israeli occupation responsible for the repercussions of this escalation on the arena of ongoing struggle.
The Israeli occupation forces stormed on Tuesday Jenin refugees camp in the West Bank, clashing with the Palestinian resistance and claiming six martyrs.
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestine’s Islamic Jihad Resistance Movement, announced targeting the Israeli enemy’s vehicles with IED explosions.
Jenin Brigade also indicated that its fighters managed to shoot down two Israeli spy drones.
The Palestinian health ministry reported six deaths and 10 injuries during the Israeli assault on Jenin, adding that the Israeli occupation troops opened fire at an ambulance cab directly.
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Ziyad Al-Nakhalah, says resistance groups are expanding throughout the West Bank in the face of the occupation.
The resistance groups in the occupied West Bank have announced that they will continue confronting the Israeli occupation until it is completely expelled, Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement Secretary-General Ziyad Al-Nakhalah said.
“The martyrs have turned the camp into a symbol of resistance and a torch that lit up a darkness that has lasted years, and the Jenin Brigade and its knights emerged as heroes,” Al-Nakhalah said.
“The heroes of the operations in Al-Quds, Huwara, and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948, as well as various groups, are forming, and they will do the impossible,” the resistance leader revealed.
He also called for the resistance groups to unite together in the face of the occupation, so that “the voice of the Palestinian people resounds and fills the horizon,” underlining the need for all Palestinian powers to fulfill the expectations of the Palestinian people and their sacrifices. He said this would only happen if the existing narrow partisanship is overcome and the resistance is united.
Furthermore, Al-Nakhallah called on the freedom fighters to be cautious and not use cell phones so as not to let their guard down against the Israeli occupation.
The resistance groups “have succeeded in obstructing [the Israeli] project to take over Palestinian lands […] it is either us or you in this land that is ours, and we will fight you until you leave, for our valiant and heroic people will not kneel or give up,” he added, addressing the Israeli occupation.
“Never hesitate when it comes to confrontation, for life under occupation is death, and martyrdom on the front is life, as reckon not those who are killed in Allah’s way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord,” he stressed. “Come out of every house to fight the Zionists; confront them everywhere, go fight them, and do not wait for them to come to you.”
Additionally, the PIJ chief said the United States pushed with all its might to hatch a new plot at the Aqaba summit, but just one man sufficed in thwarting their scheme. “American politics support the Zionist project and empower it, and the international community is moving to protect it, pushing the Arab regimes to participate in protecting the enemy and its settlers.”
According to Israeli media, this summit aimed to continue and consolidate the agreements reached between “Israel” and the Palestinian Authority within the framework of postponing the UNSC vote on condemning Israeli settlement expansion.
Israeli website Walla! explained that the US administration pushed for holding the summit as part of “an attempt to reach a state of calm before the upcoming month of Ramadan, out of fear of large-scale violent confrontations in the West Bank.”
The website indicated that the US President’s Senior Advisor for Middle East Affairs, Brett McGurk, and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf are expected to attend the meeting.
The man that Al-Nakhalah was talking about carried out an operation that led to two Israeli settlers getting killed with an M-16 rifle in the town of Huwara, Nablus.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that the man who executed the operation rammed the car of the two Israelis, then got out of his car, shot them then left the scene. The channel indicated that the Israeli occupation forces went to the area and are now looking for him.
Following the incident, Yoav Gallant, the occupation’s Minister of Security, stated, “We will soon conduct an assessment of the situation and take decisions regarding the Aqaba summit.”
The head of the settlement council in the northern West Bank described the operation that took place in Huwara as “difficult”.
The military wings of resistance factions in the Jenin refugee camp had rejected the Aqaba meeting and called on the Palestinian people to condemn it as well.
The Joint Operation Room in Gaza shows solidarity with the united armed resistance in occupied West Bank. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
The Tulkarm Brigade announced via a video message on its Telegram channel that “rapid response groups” have been assembled to respond to Israel’s massacre in the occupied West Bank, The New Arab reported.
The phrase “rapid response groups” is a reference to Raed al-Karmi, the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Palestinian Intifada.
The Tulkarm Brigade has announced its presence at a sensitive time after the Lion’s Den in Nablus announced that the “train of resistance” in the West Bank has been launched.
“After Tulkarm’s accession to the armed resistance and the completion of the formation of its cells, the resistance in the West Bank now has a shield and a sword,” the armed group said in a statement after six Lion’s Den members were killed on February 23.
A source close to the Tulkarm Brigade spoke on condition of anonymity to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed about the re-emergence of what was formerly known as the ‘Triangle of Fear’ (Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm), which was active during the Second Intifada.
The source said that this had been organized through a high level of coordination on all fronts between the Tulkarm Brigade, the Lion’s Den in Nablus, and the Jenin Brigade.
The launch of resistance operations by the Tulkarm Brigade coincides with Jordan’s hosting of high-level talks at the Aqaba Summit on Sunday, which was attended by Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials.
The source said that the Tulkarm Brigade considers any attempt to deter resistance unacceptable. He added that operations against Israel will continue and “big surprises” are coming.
(The New Arab, PC)
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An Israeli cop was gravely injured before succumbing to injuries at a military checkpoint in Occupied East Jerusalem Monday evening.
The cop and a civilian security guard got on a bus near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shaafat to conduct a routine inspection, when a 13-year-old Palestinian assailant charged at the cop with a knife and stabbed him.
The security guard opened fire to neutralize the attacker, and the officer was apparently by hit a misfire. He was rushed to Hadassah Mt. Scopus Medical Center. The Zionist Police closed the checkpoint to traffic.
A Palestinian child was killed and two others were wounded on Sunday by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) gunfire during their storming of the Jenin refugee camp amid violent confrontations that took place between the IOF and the Jenin Brigade.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reports that Israeli media said the Iron Dome intercepted two missiles fired from the Gaza Strip.
Gaza fires two rockets towards Israeli settlements (Social media)
The director of Al Mayadeen’s office in occupied Palestine reported, on Thursday night, that sirens sounded in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip including Askalan, which is one of the occupied Palestinian cities.
According to information reported and confirmed by our correspondent, the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza fired two missiles toward occupied Askalan.
The number of martyrs who died as a result of the Israeli raid on the Jenin camp has increased to 10, including one Palestinian woman, Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent to the occupied West Bank reported on Thursday, noting that there were ongoing confrontations between the Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian youths all over the occupied Palestinian territory.
The IOF raided the Jenin camp in occupied Palestine’s West Bank early on Thursday morning, leaving residents and popular resistance groups with no choice but to defend themselves and confront the occupation forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that there were 20 injuries as a result of live fire from the Israeli occupation forces, including three civilians who were in critical condition, while adding that there were dozens of suffocations as a result of the IOF raiding the Jenin Government Hospital.
The IOF prevented ambulance crews from accessing the Jenin Camp, opening fire directly on the emergency vehicles, the health ministry said. Meanwhile, photos and videos taken in the camp showed the level of destruction and havoc that the IOF caused all over.
Ramallah revealed that taking the martyrs of Jenin into account, the camp has lost 19 people due to Israeli aggression since the start of the year.
The Jenin Brigade revealed that it responded to the Israeli occupation’s aggression in the refugee camp using small arms and improvised weaponry, however, the resistance faction emphasized that there were numerous injuries among the ranks of the IOF.
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The number of martyrs as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank is still on the rise, nearly 12 hours after it started.
The toll of martyrs who died as a result of the Israeli raid on the Jenin camp has increased to nine, including one Palestinian woman, Al Mayadeen‘s correspondent to the occupied West Bank reported on Thursday, noting that there were ongoing confrontations between the Israeli occupation forces and Palestinian youths all over the occupied Palestinian territory.
The IOF raided the Jenin camp in occupied Palestine’s West Bank early on Thursday morning, leaving residents and popular resistance groups with no choice but to defend themselves and confront the occupation forces.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that there were 20 injuries as a result of live munition from the Israeli occupation forces, including three civilians in critical condition while adding that there were dozens of suffocations as a result of the IOF raiding the Jenin Governmental Hospital.
The IOF prevented ambulance crews from accessing the Jenin Camp, opening fire directly on the emergency vehicles, the health ministry said. Meanwhile, photos and videos taken in the camp showed the level of destruction and havoc that the IOF caused all over the refugee camp.
Ramallah revealed that taking the martyrs that rose on Thursday in Jenin into account, the camp has lost 19 people due to Israeli aggression since the start of the year.
The Jenin Brigade revealed that it responded to the Israeli occupation’s aggression in the refugee camp using small arms and improvised weaponry. The resistance faction that there were numerous injuries among the ranks of the IOF.
Local freedom fighters have reported shooting down a UAV that was being controlled by the Israeli occupation forces amid violent confrontations between the resistance and the IOF.
As the confrontations were taking place, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli occupation forces, General Herzl Halevy, ordered that the state of alert be raised precautiously in light of the tensions that “Tel Aviv” sparked in the occupied West Bank by raiding the refugee camp.
The confrontations in Jenin were close-quarters battles, the Israeli Channel 13 reported, noting that they saw the IOF subjected to a hail of bullets and explosive devices.
Resistance prepared
Following the Israeli aggression against the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian resistance factions denounced the Israeli raid and stressed that “the Israeli enemy will pay the price for its crimes.”
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou said, “The ongoing confrontations in Jenin, the Resistance’s engagement in the face of the [Israeli] special forces in Jenin, as well as yesterday’s confrontations in Silwan and al-Tor, bear witness to the rise of a popular Palestinian revolution which will not be hindered until it deters the occupation, put an end to its crimes, and sweeps it off of the land of Palestine.”
“All attempts by the Israeli occupation to kill the morale of our people and break their will by practicing a policy of murder, demolition, and arrest will not succeed and will not achieve security for its army and settlers.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stressed the need for holding the occupation accountable for its crimes against Palestinians and ensuring that these crimes do not go unpunished.
It called on all Resistance factions and their military wings to confront the occupation, strike its sites and barracks, and take the decision of pursuing confrontation, both political and armed, in the face of the occupation in order to defeat it, throughout Palestine, and put an end to the occupation’s continuous aggressions.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement affirmed that “the steadfastness and valor of the resistance in the Jenin camp is a clear indication that Palestinians value their right, hold on to it, and are defending it, regardless of the sacrifices.”
The movement pointed out that “the resistance is everywhere, ready for the next confrontation in the event that the fascist government and its criminal army continue to attack our people, our land, and our sanctities.”
“The Jenin camp will remain a nightmare that haunts the Zionist enemy and an icon of the rising revolution in the face of the Zionist enemy and its fascist extremist government.”
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The Zionist entity is bracing for an escalation with the Palestinian resistance on Thursday, after Israeli occupation forces committed horrible massacre in Jenin, killing 9 Palestinians and injuring at least 20 others.
Israeli media quoted an Israeli defense establishment source as saying that occupation forces will be placed on high alert across the West Bank.
“This is a number of casualties that you don’t see every day, we’re preparing for various escalation scenarios,” Ynet reported, citing the Israeli source.
Meanwhile, Hamas and Islamic Jihad Palestinian resistance movements announced that they would hold an emergency meeting in the Gaza Strip following the fighting in Jenin.
According to Al Jazeera, Islamic Jihad informed international mediators that “if the aggression against Jenin does not stop, the situation is expected to escalate and all options are on the table.”
Brutal Massacre
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli occupation forces committed horrible massacre in Jenin, as they raided the city’s refugee camp and killed 9 Palestinians and injuring 20 others.
Palestinian security sources said that occupation forces raided the Jenin refugee camp early on Thursday, prompting clashes with resistance fighters of Jenin Battalion, the resistance group of the Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades which operates in Jenin.
Fierce clashes erupted as Palestinian fighters discovered an infiltration by Israeli special forces into the camp, the security sources added.
Palestinian Health Ministry put the death toll of the Israeli aggression on Jenin at nine, including an elderly woman, Palestinian media reported.
Twenty others were wounded in the raid, the ministry said, noting that four of the injured were in critical conditions.
During the raid, Israeli occupation forces also attacked Jenin Governmental Hospital, and obstructed the work of ambulances, according to the sources.
“The Israeli occupation forces are surrounding the hospital, firing bullets and tear gas,” director of Jenin Hospital said, as quoted by Palestinian media.
“The situation in the Jenin camp is very critical, the occupation prevents aid to the wounded,” the Palestinian ministry said, adding that “the Red Crescent informed us that there are many wounded people and they are struggling to rescue and evacuate them.”
The ministry also appealed to the United States and the international community: “If you don’t act now in the face of the brutal carnage in the Jenin camp, when will you?”
Palestinian Resistance Downs Israeli Drone
Jenin Battalion announced its fighters heroically confronted the Israeli aggression, targeting occupation forces with intense barrages of fire. Palestinian resistance fighters also downed an Israeli drone flying over the camp during the brutal attack.
«اللهم ليلةً كليلة رعد»؛ طوال الأشهر التي أعقبت عمليّته في شارع ديزنغوف وسط مدينة تل أبيب، لهِج بذلك الدعاء الآلافُ ممَّن احتفظوا ببهيج صنيعه في دواخلهم. حين تَحنق النفوس بالغيظ عقب كلّ جريمة اغتيال، يَحضر طيف ابن الـ29 ربيعاً، شابّاً أنيق المظهر، يقف في مقابل شارع يزدحم بالمقاهي والمحالّ التجارية، يُشهر في تمام الساعة التاسعة من مساء يوم الخميس 7/4/2022 سلاحه، آذناً لعقارب التاريخ بأن تُسجّل وقائع انتقامه. مهندس الحاسوب المبدع، الذي يلقّبه أهل مخيم جنين بـ«السايبر»، وُلد في عائلة صَنعت الشهادةُ والتضحية سيرتها. والده هو فتحي خازم، أحد أبرز مطارَدي الانتفاضة الأولى، والذي سيغدو بعد استشهاد نجله أباً روحياً للمقاومين. أمّا خالاه، فهما عثمان السعدي (أبو العواصف)، أحد شهداء الثورة الفلسطينية في لبنان؛ ومحمد السعدي، قائد منظّمة «الفهد الأسود»، الذي كان قد قضى في اشتباك مسلّح في جنين مطلع التسعينيات؛ وزوج خالته هو القائد في حركة «الجهاد الإسلامي»، الشيخ بسام السعدي، الذي أمضى حياته متنقّلاً بين سجون الاحتلال.
يصفه مَن عرفه بحدّة الذكاء، والعبقرية في مجال شبكات الإنترنت وهندسة الحاسوب. شخصيّته وادعة مسالمة، لكنه «غامض، حيث لم يَجد أحد من جيرانه تفسيراً لصمته الدائم». يحقّ القول إن رعد أفرغَ، برفقة شقيقة الشهيد عبد الرحمن، قدْراً وافراً من مخزون ما يمكن أن يقولاه بلسانَيهما، في صنيعهما البطولي في «ديزنغوف»، والذي أدّى إلى مقتل ثلاثة إسرائيليين، تَبيّن لاحقاً أن اثنين منهم خدما في شعبة الاستخبارات العسكرية في جيش الاحتلال، فضلاً عن إصابة 15 آخرين. عملية شكّلت فاتحة عصر جديد، وألهبت حماسة الآلاف من أشباههما. بعدما استنفد ما لديه من رصاصات، استنفر انسحابُه المدروس من مسرح العملية، نحو 1000 جندي إسرائيلي للبحث عنه بين شوارع تل أبيب ويافا. في أحد مساجد المدينة العروس، صلّى فجر الجمعة الأولى من رمضان، رافضاً تسليم نفسه، ومعيداً كَرّة الاشتباك بما تبقّى لديه من رصاصات. قُتل رعد الصامت دائماً، تاركاً لفلسطين كلّها أن تزهو بضجيج الفعل العظيم.
عديّ… وما أدْراكَ ما عديّ؟
قُبالة حاجز «معاليه أدوميم»، سَجّل عدي التميمي ظهوره التاريخي الأخير. ما قاله محمود درويش مجازاً: «اضرب عدوّك بي»، طبّقه ابن مخيم شعفاط واقعاً. يَفتح جنديان مخازن الرصاص تجاه جسده، فسيتمرّ هو في إطلاق النار. تخترق الطلقات قدمَيه، فيواصل الاشتباك، قافزاً في الهواء ومحاولاً استراق مزيد من الثواني، قبل أن يَسقط ويتابع إطلاق الرصاص حتى النفَس الأخير والأثير. ستَكتب تفاصيل تلك الثواني سيرة المطارَد المشتبِك بمِداد الخلود. ابن الأعوام الـ23 كان قد نفّذ عمليّته الأولى على حاجز شعفاط في مساء 8/10/2022، حيث وثّقته كاميرات المراقبة أيضاً، يَخرج من سيارة أجرة بكلّ هدوء وثقة، ثم يُطلق الرصاص على رؤوس الجنود والجنديّات، فيَقتل إحداهنّ، قبل أن يلوذ منسحِباً. طوال أحد عشر يوماً من البحث والمطاردة، تحوَّل الشاب الأيقونة إلى ظاهرة ملهِمة؛ إذ حَلق المئات من شباب مخيّمه أوّلاً رؤوسهم كي يعقّدوا عمليات البحث عنه، ثمّ أضحى «كاركتير» شخصيته أيقونة يتمثّل بها الشبّان حتى خارج فلسطين.
«شابّ متأنّق دوماً، يفيض بالقوّة والإيمان. رياضي من الطراز الأوّل، يمارس لعبة كمال الأجسام. يعشق الأطفال، ويُكثر مشاكستهم، شهم وصاحب نخوة». بتلك الأوصاف تحدّث عنه جيرانه، وبأكثر من ذلك حيّاه الجميع، صحافيون وقادة فصائل، مقاومون وسياسيون، استطاع الشابّ «الأقرع» أن يحتلّ نبض قلوبهم. في وصيّته، أدرك عديّ أن عمليته هي «نقطة في بحر النضال الهادر»، وعَلم أيضاً أنه سيستشهد «عاجلاً أم آجلاً»، و«(أنّني) لم أحرّر فلسطين بالعملية، ولكن نفّذتُها واضعاً هدفاً أساسياً»، هو أن «يَحمل مئات من الشباب البندقية مِن بَعدي». قضى عديّ محقّقاً الهدف الذي أراد، ليسجّل العام الذي نُوقّعه باسمه وبأسماء رفاقه الفدائيين، أكبر حضور لعمليات المقاومة وشهدائها منذ 15 عاماً. لقد افتَتح التميمي عصر «الجيل الفلسطيني» الجديد، الذي يعي تماماً أنه «الآن حرّ وحرّ وحرّ».
إبراهيم النابلسي… عبق الورد والبارودة
لن يهرب «صاحب الأرواح التسع» هذه المرّة. أدرك، في صباح ذلك اليوم، أنه في الساعات الأخيرة من حياته؛ إذ لا يكفي ما بحوزته من رصاص لمجابهة نحو 500 جندي من جيش الاحتلال، اقتحموا البلدة القديمة في نابلس لتصفيته. «أمّي، أنا إبراهيم… أنا استشهدت»، كانت تلك آخر الكلمات التي حكاها لوالدته. تقول أم إياد، في حديثها إلى «الأخبار»: «قلتُ له بلهفة، رح تهرب منهم يا حبيبي، مثل كلّ مرة يا إبراهيم، ردّ قال أنا بحبك، أنا استشهدت يا أمي». ابن الـ24 ربيعاً كان قد سجّل اسمه في قوائم المطلوبين مبكراً، حيث شارك في السادسة عشرة من عمره، مع رفاقه محمد الدخيل وأدهم مبروكة وأشرف مبسلط، في زرْع عبوة ناسفة قرب موقع لجيش الاحتلال على جبل جرزيم. وخلال سنوات من النشاط المقاوِم، أسّس مع نفر قليل من أصدقائه، ما عُرف لاحقاً بـ«خلية نابلس»، التي ستغدو بعد رحيله مجموعات كبيرة بمسمّيات عدّة، يتسابق المئات من الشبّان للانضمام إلى صفوفها، وتتصدّر مشهد الاشتباك بتنفيذ العشرات من عمليات إطلاق النار.
«يحبّه الكبار والصغار»، أمّا هو فـ«متيّمٌ بالصغار على وجه الخصوص»، تقول والدته، وتُواصل: «كان بهجة البيت، بريء ومتواضع، طيّب وعذب الخلق، يترك خلفه عبق الورد أينما حلّ». يروي عن بساطته وعزّة نفسه أيضاً، أبو جمال، شقيق صديقه الشهيد أدهم مبروكة: «كان إبراهيم ورفاقه الثلاثة يعملون يوماً أو يومَين في الأسبوع برفقتي في مجال الديكور والجبص كي يؤمّنوا مصروفهم الشخصي، أربعة شبّان يأكلون من وجبة واحدة، يتقاسمون باكيت سجائر واحد، كي لا يطلبوا من أحد حاجتهم». في أحد أعياد الأم، أهدى «أبو فتحي» والدته خاتم فضة، كان قد اشتراه من مصر «أون لاين» منقوشاً عليه: «لا تحزن إنه حيّ». تستذكر أم إياد، وهي أمّ لثلاثة أبناء وابنة، يعتقل الاحتلال نجلها الأكبر إياد إلى اليوم، تلك اللَفتات بالقول: «إبراهيم كان يهيّئني دائماً للحظة استشهاده، وحين كنت أحاول إقناعه بأن يلتفت إلى حياته ومستقبله، كانت طريقته البسيطة في الإقناع لا تُبقي لديّ ما يمكن قوله».
بعد أن كثّف الاحتلال من مطاردته، وظهر «البطل» مودّعاً رفاقه واحداً تلو الآخر، أجمعت على حبّه القلوب، وتَحقّق ما كان يتمنّاه من أن «يرى الناس صورة المقاوم الحقيقي». قضى «المطارَد الأوّل» في 9/8/2022، بعد حصار استمرّ أربع ساعات في حارة الحبلة في البلدة القديمة في نابلس، تاركاً رسالته المسجَّلة وصيّة لعشرات المقاومين مِن خَلفه: «أنا بحب أمي، حافظوا على الوطن من بَعدي، بوصّيكم ما حد يترك البارودة».
أدهم مبروكة… لم يستوحش طريق الحق
تجتمع في مسيرة الشهيد أدهم مبروكة، الشهير بـ«الشيشاني»، أبلغُ معاني التضحية والاغتراب. وحيداً بدأ الدرب برفقة أصدقائه الشهداء إبراهيم النابلسي وأشرف مبسلط ومحمد الدخيل، ووحيداً تحمّل أكلاف المواجهة مع الأجهزة الأمنية التابعة للسلطة من جهة، وملاحقة جيش الاحتلال من جهة أخرى. يقول شقيقه الأكبر أبو جمال في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»: «أدهم صديقي الحميم، إنسان عصامي جداً، عزيز النفس، اعتُقل مرات عدّة في سجون السلطة، أطولُ تلك الاعتقالات تجاوزت مدّته العامين ونصف العام، خرج من السجن وقد خُلع كتفه من التعذيب والشبح». الطريق الذي بدأه «الشيشاني» برفقة «خلية نابلس»، تحمّل أعباءه المادّية من كدّه وعرق جبينه؛ إذ إنه وعلى رغم إصابته البالغة، كان يجتهد في العمل مع شقيقه في مجال التشطيب والديكور والبناء، ليؤمّن مصاريف المطاردة. «اشترى بندقيّته من عَرق جبينه»، يقول شقيقه، ويتابع: «بعد استشهاده، اجتهدنا في البحث عن مَن لديه حق أو دَين مادي في عنقه، اكتشفنا أنه مَدين بأكثر من ألفي دولار هي ما تبقّى من ثمن بندقيته».
تأثَّر «الشيشاني»، في أدبيات المقاومة و«الاتّصال الإلهي»، بكلٍّ من الشهيدَين جمال الكيال وجميل العموري. عايش إحساس التعلّق بسيرتهما، وكتب عن ذلك في صفحته على «فايسبوك»: «إذا تعلّقتَ بشهيد ما، فاعلم أن هذا الشهيد اختارك لتُكمل مسيرته، لذلك كُن فكرة». تصفه والدته التي رفعت إشارة النصر أمام الآلاف من مشيّعيه، بالقول: «كان حنوناً يحبّ الخير والناس، عنيداً في خياراته، لم يلتفت إلى تهديدات ضابط المخابرات الإسرائيلي المستمرّة، رَفض تسليم نفسه، وآثر أن يمضي في طريقه حتى الشهادة». يكمل شقيقه الأكبر أبو جمال: «كان خجولاً وحسّاساً، يستحي من أن يحمل سلاحه أمام سكّان الحي، كي لا يكون هذا السلاح مَدعاة للتظاهر والاستعراض، يُرسل من يشتري له أغراضه حتى يتجنّب إصرار أصحاب المتاجر على أن لا يأخذوا منه الأموال بدافع الكرم والحب».
تَكشف تفاصيل عملية اغتياله ورفاقه في 8/2/2022، قدْر الغيظ الذي اعتمل لدى المؤسّسة الأمنية الإسرائيلية من نشاطاته، حيث أطلقت قوّة «اليمام» الإسرائيلية الخاصة النار عليه مِن مسافة صفر، برفقة صديقَيه الدخيل ومبسلط. في مراسم التشييع المهيبة، هتف الآلاف من مشيّعيه: «ارفع إيديك وعلّيي… الموت ولا المذلة»، قبل أن يقرّر المئات أن يواصلوا الطريق التي يرفضون بها المذلّة.
تامر الكيلاني… الطلقة المنفردة
لم تفلح كلّ محاولات ذوي الشهيد تامر الكيلاني في إقناعه بأن يترك الطريق الذي «اختاره بكلّ قناعة وإيمان». «الخبّاز وصانع الحلويات المبدع»، الذي قضى نحو ثُلث سنيّ حياته في سجون الاحتلال، كان مسكوناً بالمقاومة منذ صِباه. يَذكر أحد رفاقه أن استشهاد القيادي في كتائب الشهيد أبو علي مصطفى، يامن فرج، عام 2004، كان له الأثر الأبلغ في حياته؛ إذ عُرف بكنية «أبو يامن»، وهو لم يتجاوز الـ14 عاماً. بين الـ13 والـ20 من عمره، أصيب ثلاث مرّات في مواجهات مع العدو، آخرها كانت الأكثر حرجاً، حيث نجا فيها من الموت بأعجوبة. كما اعتُقل ابن الـ33 ربيعاً عدّة مرات في سجون الاحتلال، ليقضي وفق ما قاله والده سفيان، ما مجموعه تسعة أعوام من عُمره خلف القضبان. قبل نحو ثلاثة أعوام من استشهاده، وفي الأشهر الأخيرة من سجنه الأخير، ارتبط برفيقة عمره شيماء، وأنجب منها بعد زواج استمرّ عامَين طفله البكر يامن، ثمّ طفلته وتين. تقول أم يامن في حديثها إلى «الأخبار»: «في بداية المطاردة، جلس معي وخيّرني بين أن نستمرّ في زواجنا، أو أتركه وأبحث عن مستقبلي في حياة أكثر استقراراً (…) أنا أخت لشهيد وأسير محرَّر، كان ردّي وأنا أرى أن الشهادة هي مصيره، أنّني سأبقى معه إلى النهاية».
خلال أشهر المطاردة الساخنة، نشط في تأسيس مجموعات «عرين الأسود» مع الشهيدَين وديع الحوح ومحمد العزيزي، ونفّذ العديد من عمليات إطلاق النار، كما خطّط لتنفيذ عمليات تفجيرية أخرى في مدن العمق. أدرك المقاوم الشابّ مبكراً أنه على موعدٍ مع الشهادة. تقول زوجته: «كان محبّاً لأولاده ولزوجته، ومحبّاً للحياة أيضاً، لكنه كان يردّد لي دائماً أن الله أحنّ منا علينا، زرع فينا حبّ فلسطين وحبّ الله عزّ وجلّ، إلى الحدّ الذي أصبحنا فيه نحبّ ما يفعل رغم خوفنا عليه». «قنّاص لا تَخيب له طلقة»، يقول أحد رفاقه في «الجبهة الشعبية»، لافتاً إلى أن تامر احترف القنص، وكان يوصي رفاقه بأن يحفظوا رصاصهم، وأن لا يهدروه في العشوائية والاستعراض. خلال الاجتياحات، كان رفاقه المقاتلون يميّزون صوت طلَقاته من بين كثافة الأزيز: «طلَقات منفردة، ندرك أن كلّ واحدة منها عرفت طريقها بدقّة إلى أحد الجنود»، يضيف رفيقه.
تستذكر زوجته أيامه الأخيرة، حين احتفل بعيد ميلاده قبل استشهاده بأيّام معدودة: «زرتُه في البلدة القديمة، وكان تامر يغيب عنّا طويلاً، أمسك ابنه يامن الذي لم يتجاوز العامين، وصار يحدّثه، إيّاك يا بابا تتوهّم يوماً أني متت ببلاش، أنا سأرحل لأجل مستقبلك». تُواصل: «قبل استشهاده بدقائق كان يتحدّث معنا في مكالمة مصوَّرة، وطلب منّا أن نسامحه، ثمّ بعد خمس دقائق من انتهاء المكالمة، انفجرت به درّاجة نارية مفخّخة كانت مركونة في حي العطعوط في البلدة القديمة في نابلس». مضى تاركاً فينا وفي محبّيه وصاياه التي أضحت واقعاً: «الطريق إلى الأقصى… تُعبّده البندقية».
جميل العموري… قاتل عدوّك لا مفرّ
كان من المفاجئ لأمّ جميل العموري أن تدرك أن ولدها ذا الوجه الطفولي البريء، هو القائد الملهم الذي سيُنسب إليه فيما بعد، تجديد حالة الاشتباك، بعد نحو 15 عاماً من القضاء على البٌنى التحتية لفصائل المقاومة في الضفة الغربية المحتلّة بشكل شبه كلّي. ابن الـ25 ربيعاً، الذي لمع اسمه في مخيم جنين، اضطرّ لترك الدراسة مبكراً ليعيل أسرته المكوَّنة من سبعة أشخاص. تقول أم جميل، في حديثها إلى «الأخبار»: «اشترينا سيّارة أجرة ليعمل عليها، كان مكافحاً وعصامياً، يدّخر ما يستطيع، وفي أحد الأيام، دخل بيتنا وقد باع السيارة واشترى بثمنها بارودة (…) حاولت أن أقنعه بالزواج من دون جدوى». يلفت أحد عناصر «كتيبة جنين» التي سيرتبط تأسيسها باستشهاد العموري، إلى أن «الله مَنح جميل قدرة هائلة على التأثير في مَن حوله، وإمكانات قيادية لافتة. هو بخلاف مَن اشتبكوا بشكل فردي مع الاحتلال، بدأ بتأسيس خلايا المقاومة، ووجّه ببساطته وأسلوبه العذب، الشباب في مخيم جنين ونابلس إلى استثمار الإمكانات المحدودة، لصناعة حالة عسكرية مستدامة». أمّا عن فلسفة الاشتباك لديه، فهي: «قاتل عدوك كأنك في حلبة مصارعة رومانية، باغتْه وجهاً لوجه لتشلّ حسابات المنطق وردّة الفعل المدروسة لديه، ثمّ اختفِ»، بحسب ما يوضح رفيقه الشهيد محمد السعدي في مقابلة سابقة.
بين جنين ونابلس تنقّل العموري، تاركاً أثره في جيل جديد من الشبّان الذين سيغدون في نهاية الـ2022 التحدّي الأكبر للمنظومة الأمنية الإسرائيلية. تقول والدته: «إلى اليوم، رغم فخري الكبير به وأنا أراه في عيون المئات من رفاقه الذين يزورونني دائماً، أحاول بصعوبة إقناع نفسي بأن ذلك الشابّ الجميل البريء، هو مَن أسّس حالة المقاومة الكبيرة». لمع نجم العموري بعد تنفيذه عدّة عمليات إطلاق نار، كانت باكورتها في كانون الثاني 2020، حيث أطلق النار باتّجاه جنود الاحتلال بينما كانوا يهدمون للمرّة الثانية منزلَ الأسير أحمد القنبع في مدينة جنين، واستمرّ بعد ذلك في تنفيذ عمليات إطلاق نارٍ على الحواجز وخلال التصدّي لاقتحام المخيم. ثمّ تطلّب الأمر من الشبح المختفي أن يَظهر علناً، فكان ظهوره الأوّل في كلمة ألقاها في المخيّم خلال معركة «سيف القدس». قال العموري منظّراً لمنهجه المقاوم: «شبابنا الذين تحملون السلاح في الضفّة، لا تُطلِقوا رصاصكم في الهواء، إنّ هذا السلاح أمانة في أعناقكم، وواجب ديني وشرعي أن يتوجّه إلى الاحتلال».
قضى «مجدِّد الاشتباك» كما يلقّبه رفاقه في 10 حزيران 2021، بعملية اغتيال نفّذتها «وحدة اليمام» الخاصة في جيش الاحتلال، فيما لا يزال جيش العدو يحتجز جثمانه إلى اليوم. تقول أم جميل: «أرْعبهم جميل حيّاً، وأرادوا أن يُخمدوا ذكره شهيداً، لذلك احتجزوا جثمانه، لكنهم تفاجؤوا بالمئات من أشباهه».
عبود صبح… مَن اشترتْه الحياة وباعها
«إذا يوم بتصحي بيقولولك عبود مات شو بتعملي؟»، كانت تلك الكلمات، هي نصّ رسالة صوتية بعثها الشهيد عبد الرحمن صبح إلى خطيبته ميرا. في ذلك الصباح، لم تكن الفتاة العشرينية تعلم أن الفارق بين نبوءة حبيبها والرحيل هي شهر ونصف شهر فقط. حينها، تجاهلت ما حكاه إليها قدَرها والشعور، إذ لا أحد يَقبل على نفسه التفكير في لحظة فراق أعزّ مَن يحب، لكن في النهاية قضى بطل «عرين الأسود». في صباح الرحيل، «وحده الله هو مَن ربط على قلبي»، تقول ميرا لـ«الأخبار» وهي تصف الأشهر التي عايشتها منذ رحيله في 24/7/2022، مضيفةً: «شعور هائل بالفقد»، لكن لا شيء تَغيّر، فهي لا تزال تحتفظ بتفاصيل الأشهر السبعة التي عايشتها برفقته، فقد كان «رجلاً حقيقياً، وسنداً بكلّ ما تحمل الكلمة من معنى».
أجمعت على حبّ «خيال البلدة القديمة» القلوب، فهو الشاب الشهم الذي عايش حياة اليسر المادي والنجاح الاجتماعي بأعلى مراتبه. يقول شقيقه سائر: «كان لديه حصان يحبّه كثيراً اسمه الأدهم، الحياة كانت فاتحة يديها لعبود، لكنه لم يكن مشترياً للحياة، كان قد اشترى الآخرة، أنا رأيته شهيداً قبل أن يرحل بأربعة أشهر». نقطة التحوّل في حياته، وفق خطيبته «أم آدم» كما كان يحبّ أن يناديها، بدأت في شهر رمضان الماضي. حينها، كثرت الأيام التي يغيب فيها عن المنزل، وكثر حديثه عن الشهادة، وكان قد انخرط برفقة صديقه الشهيد محمد العزيزي في تأسيس مجموعات «عرين الأسود». وفي منتصف تموز الماضي، وعقب ليلة قضاها العروسان في انتقاء «عفش» البيت، تفاجأت خطيبته صباح اليوم التالي بأنه ذهب إلى المحكمة ليُتمّ إجراءات الانفصال عنها، إذ إنه أصبح مطلوباً ينتظر حتفه في أيّ لحظة. تقول: «بعث لي برسالة كتب فيها: سامحيني، وكتاب الله ما حبّيت بنت قد ما أحببتك، اعملت هيك حتى ما أظلمك، سامحيني بعد استشهادي وما تدعي علية». رفضت ميرا وعائلتها فصْل الخطوبة، وردّت بالقول: «معك ع الموت»، الذي لم يتأخّر كثيراً، عندما قضى عبود ورفيقه العزيزي في اشتباكات مع قوات الاحتلال في البلدة القديمة في نابلس.
فاروق سلامة… أرقُّ مَن حَمل السلاح
تحوّلت مراسم فرح العريس فاروق سلامة، القيادي في «كتيبة جنين»، إلى حزنٍ عمّ البلاد بأكملها. ففي مطلع تشرين الثاني الماضي، استغلّت وحدة «اليمام» الخاصة في الجيش الإسرائيلي، انشغاله ورفاقه بتجهيز ذبيحة وليمة الفرح، واقتحمت المسلخ حيث يتواجد، وباغتتْه بصليات من الرصاص. لم تكن ثمّة فرصة أفضل من تلك للنيل منه؛ فقد عايشته المؤسّسة الأمنية الإسرائيلية عن قرب، هو الذي تجاوزت سنوات اعتقاله المتفرّقة منذ كان طفلاً لم يتخطّى الـ15 عاماً، نحو ستّ سنوات. «عنيد وجريء ولا يخشى الموت»، تقول والدته أم فادي سلامة في حديثها إلى «الأخبار» وهي تستذكر المرّة الأولى لاعتقاله، مضيفةً: «كان شبلاً عمره 15 عاماً، حينما كان يشارك في رشق جنود الاحتلال بالحجارة على حاجز الجلمة القريب من مخيم جنين، أمسك به أحد الجنود، ولَطمه على خدّه، لم يَهرب، إنّما اقترب من غريمه الجندي، وبَصق في وجهه وحاول رد ضربته، ليُعتقل إثر فعلته تلك ويقضي عامين في السجن».
حين اغتيل، لم يكن قد مضى على خروجه من السجن سوى أحد عشر شهراً. خلال تلك المدّة، لم ينجح فاروق في تنظيم صفوف «كتيبة جنين» فحسب، إنّما ساهم على نحو فاعل في بناء خلايا المقاومة في طولكرم وفي نابلس، واجتهد في دعم وتنظيم «كتيبة نابلس» ومجموعات «عرين الأسود». تقول أم فادي: «كنتُ أَعلم أنه ناشط في المقاومة، لكنّني لم أعرف أنه قائد بهذا الحجم إلّا بعد استشهاده، كان يُشعرني دائماً أنه شابّ عادي لا يقوم بأكثر ممّا يفعله عامّة الشباب في المخيم». أمّا عن زواجه الذي قَبِل به الشهيد كي لا يُخالف ما اشتهته له والدته، فتقول: «حاولتُ بفهمي الطيب أن أشتريه وأن أشغله عن هذا الطريق، في النهاية أنا أمّ (…) لم أشبع منه، قضى حياته بين الأَسر والمطاردة، قَبِل الزواج لأجلي، وعاش الفرح وعشتُه معه».
مقتنيات الشهيد فاروق سلامة عاش «عريس فلسطين» في عائلة مناضلة. اعتُقل والده وإخوته مراراً، وجَمع السجن بينه وبين أبيه. آخر الأبناء المعتقَلين كان إيهاب، الذي ساهم في تأمين أسيرَي «نفق الحرية» أيهم كممجي ومناضل انفيعات، وأُفرج عنه قبل أسبوع من زفاف أخيه، ليُعاد اعتقاله يوم اغتيال فاروق مجدّداً. يقول أحد رفاقه في «كتيبة جنين»، إن فاروق، وعلى رغم ما كان يبديه من صلابة ورجولة، إلّا أنه «أرقُّ مَن حَمل السلاح»، لم يترك محتاجاً من دون مساعدة، ولم يمضِ يومٌ من دون أن يَطلب منّا أن نسامحه».
متين ضبايا… يا سعدَ من نال الشهادة مخلصاً
الشهيدان متين ضبايا (يمين) وعبد الله الحصري (يسار)
يُشعركَ النُطق باسمه، بقدْر البأس الذي تَحمله شخصيته. هو متين ضبايا، أحد قادة «كتيبة جنين»، ورفيق البدايات إلى جانب الشهداء جميل العموري وعبد الله الحصري وداوود الزبيدي. يَحفظ أهالي المخيم الدروب التي سلكها خلال عامَين ونصف عام من المطاردة. تشهد على ابن الـ25 ربيعاً الأزقّة والجدران، وعشرات المواجهات التي لمع فيها نجمه متقدّماً الصفوف، مقاتلاً على الطريقة التي تَوافق عليها مع رفيقه العموري: «كن قريباً من عدوك، تصبح أقوى». تقوم هذه الفلسفة العسكرية المبتدَعة على ضرورة تقليص المسافة بين المشبِك وخصمه، لأن اتّساع الفارق المكاني يعطي العدو امتياز استخدام وسائل القتال المتطوّرة، ما يسمح له بتوظيف أسلحة القنص والتتبّع وكثافة النار، أمّا حين تُباغته من مسافة صفر، فإنك ستتفوّق عليه بإمكانات شجاعتك الذاتية، في مقابل ضعفه وارتباكه، فيُضحي السلاح الذي في يديه بلا قيمة. «مَن صَدَق العزم وجدّ السبيل، يا سعدَ من نال الشهادة مخلصاً»؛ بهذه العبارة عَنوَن «مشتبِك المخيم» حسابه في «فايسبوك»، وقد سعى بعد خروجه من السجن إلى مقصده من دون تردّد. يقول شقيقه إسلام في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»: «في حياته، كان من أبسط الناس، عمل في تجارة الخضار، كسب رزقه من كدّه وتعبه، وحين استحالت الحياة العادية بعد المطاردة، عاش زاهداً فقيراً غير مكترث لزخارف الدنيا».
«مكافح وحنون، وقريب من إخوته الخمسة»، يتابع إسلام حديثه، لافتاً إلى أن متين «انخرط في طريق المقاومة من دون أن يفصح لعائلته عمّا يخطّط له، هو غامض للغاية، ثمّ أصبح في خطّ الدفاع الأول في كافة الاجتياحات». في 14 تشرين الأول 2022، تَقدّم صفوف المقاومين كعادته في التصدّي لقوات الاحتلال التي داهمت المخيم، وبعد ساعات من الاشتباك في واحد من أعنف الاجتياحات وأوسعها، باغتتْه طلقة قنّاص، وقضى إلى جانب الشهيد عبد الله أبو تين. أمام جثمانه، وقفت والدته، وقالت بعد أن باركت لابنها شهادته التي تمنّاها: «كان ابني يردّد دوماً، لا أريد أن أموت هكذا، كان يرى الموت العادي مخجلاً، كان يتمنّى أن يموت شهيداً، ولأنه تمنّى ذلك، أنا سعيدة لأجله وقد استشهد مع أصحابه، إخوته الذين تمنّى الموت إلى جانبهم».
محمد الدخيل… مَن أطاع حسّه وفاز
لم تكن ثمّة فرصة لنهاية أخرى. كان يجب أن تكتمل الصورة التي ظهر فيها محمد الدخيل، طفلاً لم يتجاوز الستّة أعوام، يقف مبتسماً إلى جانب أبرز مطارَدي البلدة القديمة في نابلس، باسل أبو سرية «القذافي»، وعبد الرحمن الشناوي، وأمين لبادة، وفضل نور، الذين قضوا جميعهم في عمليات اغتيال متفرّقة عام 2007. يقول والده رائد في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»: «عندما كان يغيب محمد وهو في سنّ السادسة من عمره، كنتُ أسأل أنا ووالدته عن مكان تواجد المقاومين والمطارَدين، وأجده وسطهم»، مضيفاً: «أسميتُه محمد، لأنه ولد عام 2000، العام ذاته الذي استشهد فيه عمّه محمد، خلال مواجهات وقعت قرب قبر يوسف في نابلس».
كان شغوفاً بالمقاومة، عاش على أحاديث البطولة والشهداء، وفي الرابعة عشرة من عمره، تعرّف إلى شخص يجيد صناعة القنابل، ونفّذ أوّل عملية على جبل جرزيم، اعتُقل على إثرها سبعة أشهر في سجون السلطة، قبل أن يُعاد اعتقاله مرّات عدّة في وقت لاحق في سجون الاحتلال. يُرجع المقاومون الفضل في إعادة بعْث المقاومة في المدينة، إلى دماء محمد الدخيل ورفاقه أدهم مبروكة وأشرف مبسلط وإبراهيم النابلسي. يقول أحد مقاومي «كتيبة نابلس» لـ«الأخبار»: «دفَع محمد دمه لإشعال المقاومة من جديد، بدأ وحيداً برفقة النابلسي، ثمّ التقى هو ورفاقه مبسلط ومبروكة (…) يمكن لي أن أزعم، أنه لو لم يَقتل الاحتلال الأقمار الثلاثة، أو اكتفى باعتقالهم، لمَا كنّا سمعنا عن كتيبة نابلس ولا عرين الأسود».
طوال أشهر من المطارَدة، حاول والده بدافع الأبوّة إقناعه بأن يترك الطريق الذي سلكه. يقول أبو محمد: «ابني بسيط وليست له تجربة في الحياة، كنتُ قد حذّرته مراراً وطلبتُ منه التريّث. في إحدى المرّات، سألتُه لأجل مَن ستموت، وعندما أجاب، إذا كنت معتقداً أنّني سأُقتل لأجل أحد فأنت مخطئ، أدركتُ أنه يطيع حسّه، وأن أيامه في هذه الحياة لن تكون طويلة». يتابع: «تفاجأت أن محمد قد اشترى بندقية “أم 16” من حُرّ ماله، وبعد سلسلة من اتّصالات التهديد من المخابرات الإسرائيلية، ترك منزلنا، وأقام في منزل جدّته في البلدة القديمة، وتعهدها بالخدمة والرعاية حتى استشهاده».
يحق القول إن عملية اغتيال الرفاق الثلاثة في وسط البلدة القديمة في نابلس ظهر 21/2/2022، أورثَت شعوراً جمعياً بالقهر. وحين حملت والدة الدخيل بندقيته أمام جثمانه وسط الآلاف من الجماهير، كانت تلك الإشارة التي التقطها المئات: «لا تتركوا طريقه».
محمد أيمن السعدي… لسنا العابرين
يقترن اسم الشهيد محمد أيمن السعدي برفيقه مؤسِّس «كتيبة جنين»، جميل العموري. غير أن «أبو الأيمن» كان القائد الأكثر طموحاً في الكتيبة، حَمل بعد صديقه عبء البدايات، هواجس الاجتثاث، هموم التنظيم والاستقطاب، واستطاع نقل الحالة من الفردية إلى التنظيم. يقول أحد رفاقه في الكتيبة، في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»، إن «شخصية ابن الـ26 عاماً كانت تَجمع ما بين إقدام الشباب في المواجهات، حيث يتقدّم الصفوف، وديناميكية القادة»، مضيفاً: «بعد استشهاد العموري، حرث أبو الأيمن الأرض، واستطاع تأمين خطوط الدعم والتمويل، وبدأ في بناء وتشكيل الكتيبة، مستأنساً بتجارب رفاقنا السابقين، محاذراً الوقوع في ذات الأخطاء، كان يطمح إلى نقل الكتيبة المحصورة في حدود المخيم، إلى ظاهرة تمتدّ إلى كل مناطق الضفة الغربية المحتلّة».
انخرط الرجل مبكراً في حياة المطاردة. اعتُقل في المرّة الأولى في سنّ الـ16 عاماً، وعقب خروجه من السجن، بدأت جولاته الشاقّة التي خاض خلالها عشرات الاشتباكات، وأصيب فيها مرات عدّة. تحْمل شخصية «أبو الأيمن» الذي ابتُلي بفقد والده بعد يوم واحد من خروجه من سجون الاحتلال إثر اعتقال دام عامَين، سرّاً أكْسبه قبولاً ومحبّة لدى الجميع. يقول ابن عمّه، شافع السعدي، في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»: «أكثر ما يميّزه، أنه مرح وصاحب دعابة، يحبّ الكبارُ والصغار مجالسته، ينتقل بِمَن يرافقهم من أجواء الكآبة إلى السعادة والتعالي على الهموم». علاوة على ذلك، عُرف عنه النفَس الوحدوي الذي تجاوز به التقسيمات الحزبية، وكثيراً ما ظهر في مقاطع مصوَّرة يهتف باسم محمد الضيف وإبراهيم النابلسي وقادة «عرين الأسود».
في أحد لقاءاته المصوَّرة التي كان يتحدّث فيها عن رفيقه جميل العموري، قال السعدي: «أمنية جميل ووصيّته أن لا نكون حالة عابرة مؤقّتة، أن نؤسّس بنية يستمرّ أثرها وفعلها من دون أن يستطيع الاحتلال اجتثاثها». قضى «أبو الأيمن» بعد أن خاض اشتباكاً طويلاً مع القوات الإسرائيلية الخاصة في مخيم جنين برفقة صديقه نعيم الزبيدي مطلع شهر كانون الأول الجاري. وعقب استشهاده، بدا واضحاً أن حدود الكتيبة التي نَذَر حياته في سبيل تطويرها وتوسعتها، امتدّت إلى خارج المخيم، في قباطية وعرابة وجبع، وأضحت هاجساً حقيقياً تقدّر قوات الاحتلال عديدها بـ150 مقاتلاً.
محمد حرز الله… «عزماتك ما انسينا»
في مساء الثالث والعشرين من تشرين الثاني الماضي، أغلق «أبو حمدي المجروح» عينيه إلى الأبد، بعد أربعة أشهر من إصابته خلال التصدّي لقوات الاحتلال، التي هاجمت منزل رفيقَيه عبود صبح ومحمد العزيزي في البلدة القديمة في نابلس، قضى تلك المدّة، وهو يسكن عيون ملايين الفلسطينيين، في الضفة الغربية وقطاع غزة ومخيمات الشتات. واكب الآلاف حالته الصحّية، في الشوارع والمقاهي وطابور الصباح في المدارس. حفظ الجميع النشيد الثوري الذي خلد اسمه: «يا أبو حمدي المجروح… عزماتك ما انسينا».
هو محمد أحمد حرز الله، الخليط العجائبي من الشهامة والرجولة والكتمان و«البلادة اللذيذة» أيضاً. تقول شقيقته، الزميلة الصحافية رشا حرز الله، في حديثها إلى «الأخبار»: «يَحضر أبو حمدي في التفاصيل الصغيرة. على رغم أنه هادئ جدّاً وكتوم للغاية، وكثير الغياب عن المنزل، فإن مشاكساته لا تُنسى. عندما كنتُ أَزور عائلتي في البلدة القديمة يوم السبت، أَدخل الحيّ وأَلمحه على باب صديقه الحلاق، أشير إليه، فيأتي ليحمل عني الشنطة الثقيلة، يمدّ يده مسلّماً عليَّ برسمية مبالغ بها، كالغرباء، يحافظ على مسافة في مشيته معي، لأن تقبيلي له أمام الحيّ يثير عصبيّته، يمشي ببلادته المعتادة وهو يتمتم: “بتأشريلي مصلحة حتى أحمل عنك الشنطة، مهو أنا عتال”».
أربعة أشهر قضاها ابن الـ30 ربيعاً في رحلة العلاج، أُجريت له فيها نحو اثنتَي عشرة عملية جراحية، وواكبت خلالها رشا أخباره مع مُتابعيها عبر «فايسبوك». أَحبّه أهل البلدة القديمة التي أحبّها هو في المقابل إلى الحدّ الذي كان يرفض الخروج منها حتى للعمل. تقول حرز الله: «في إحدى الفترات، كان يبحث أبو حمدي عن عمل، طلبتُ منه أن يبحث في أيّ مكان خارج البلدة القديمة، فردّ بالقول: لك أنا من الحارة ما بطلع مش من البلدة القديمة، وواصل بحثه إلى أن وجد عملاً بجانب البيت». تستذكر شقيقته طفولته المرحة المشاغبة: «ذات مرّة، أخذناه بيدنا إلى المدرسة، ثمّ كرّر عادته بالهرب متوجّهاً إلى حيث الاشتباكات مع الجيش بالحجارة، وما إن وصلنا إلى البيت حتى شاهدناه في البثّ التلفزيوني المباشر وهو يحمل إطار كوشوك يتجاوز بحجمه جسمه النحيل، ويلقيه على جيب إسرائيلي».
خلال مرضه، انتشرت عدّة مقاطع مصوَّرة لشقيقه نضال المصاب بـ«متلازمة داون»، وهو يرافق أبو حمدي في المستشفى الاستشاري في رام الله. تصف رشا علاقته بأخيه بالقول: «كان يحبّه كثيراً، لكن أبو حمدي لا يعبّر عن مشاعره بشكل تقليدي، كان يكثر المزاح معه، كانا مثل “ناقر ونقير”، لكن نضال كان يشعر بقدْر الحب الذي تكنّه مشاغبات أخيه». كشفت إصابة «صاحب الفزعة والعزمات»، ثمّ استشهاده، عن هامش من همومه المخبوءة خلْف ستار صمته وكتمانه. هو مقاوم مشتبك، جريء وبطل، يقول أحد رفاقه في «عرين الأسود»: «تفاجأنا أن عائلته لا تمتلك أيّ إحاطة حول حياته الجهادية، وتفاجأنا أكثر حينما فاجأتهم مشاهد اشتباكاته البطولية في البلدة القديمة».
رحل أبو حمدي، زفّه عشرات الآلاف، حملوه على الأكتاف وطافوا بموكبه مدن الضفة الغربية، من المستشفى الاستشاري في رام الله، ثم إلى بيرزيت، ثمّ إلى حاجز حوارة. وفي غزة، بكتْه الآلاف من العيون، التي كانت تأمل أن تنتهي رحلة العلاج بالشفاء.
محمد صوف… وجئتَ فكنتَ اعتذارَ الزمان إليّ
بالقدْر الذي تركتْه عمليته البطولية من بهجة، كانت المفاجأة التي عاشتها عائلة الشهيد محمد صوف. في مستوطنة «آرئيل»، في منتصف شهر تشرين الثاني الماضي، نفّذ ابن بلدة حارس انتقاماً طال التخطيطُ له. صاحب الـ18 ربيعاً صفّى حساباً شخصياً، وعامّاً. أمّا الأول، فَلِصالح والده الذي توفّي قبل ثلاث سنوات، جرّاء حقْنه بدم فاسد عقب إصابته بمرض التهاب الكبد الوبائي، وهو في داخل سجون الاحتلال التي زُجّ فيها مطلع الانتفاضة الثانية عام 2000، وأورثتْه أمراضاً عديدة آخرها السرطان. وأمّا الثاني، فلفلسطين عامّة، وأبناء قريته سلفيت خاصة، التي كانت جرافات الاحتلال قد اقتلعت قبل أيام من انتقامه، 2000 شجرة زيتون منها، وقَتلت ابنة حيّه الطفلة فلّة المسالمة.
«رياضي وهادئ ومتّزن، دمث الخلق وعزيز النفس، أنيق الطلّة وحَسن المظهر»؛ هكذا وصفه عمه مصطفى في حديثه إلى «الأخبار». والمُفاجئ في عمليته، هو أنه لم يُظهر طوال حياته أيّ اهتمام بالسياسة، إذ انشغل عقب وفاة والده برعاية عائلته، حيث ترك الدراسة بعد أن أتمّ الصف العاشر، وبدأ العمل في مستوطنة «آرئيل» المحاذية لقريته، للإنفاق على أخوَيه وأخواته الثلاث ووالدته. يواصل عمّه حديثه: «كنتُ أقتطع من راتبه الشهري ألفَي شيكل لأبدأ البناء، كنّا نخطّط لأن نزوّجه في سن العشرين، كي نُدخل الفرح على أسرته».
بدأ «المقاوم اليتيم» عمليّته التي استبقها بتدريب رياضي طيلة عام كامل، نحو الساعة التاسعة والنصف صباح الثلاثاء 15/11/2022، بطعن مستوطن على مدخل المستوطنة الصناعية، ثمّ انتقل إلى محطّة محروقات قريبة وطَعن فيها مستوطنَين آخرين، ثمّ استولى على مركبة وقادها ليدهس مستوطِناً رابعاً، قبل أن يطلق جنود الاحتلال ومستوطِنون كانوا في المكان النار عليه، ويسقط على الأرض مضرَّجاً بدمائه ويرتقي شهيداً. الانتقام الذي وثّقت كاميرات المراقبة تفاصيله كافة، وأسفر عن مقتل ثلاثة جنود وإصابة آخرين، بدا صاحبه «الأنيق» وكأنّه قد استطاع أن يحرّر أرضه ويقيم عليها دولة كاملة السيادة، لـ20 دقيقة فقط.
صدقْتَ يا وديع… لم يُكسَر ظَهر المدينة بَعدك
لم يكن سهلاً على أهالي نابلس أن يتقبّلوا فكرة رحيل وديع الحَوح. خلال الأشهر الأخيرة، أضحى ابن الـ31 ربيعاً أسطورة في الوعي الجمعي لسكّان البلدة القديمة تحديداً. في ليلة استشهاده 25/10/2022، حَمله الآلاف من مُحبّيه على الأكتاف، نظروا في عيونه المسبّلة وقد هدأت أخيراً، وهتفوا بحرقة: «من المبكر كثيراً أن تموت يا وديع». ذهبوا به إلى المستشفى العربي في نابلس، آملين أن يكون نبضه قد عاد. وأمام إصرار الجماهير المتعطّشة لبقاء «الملهِم»، اضطرّ الأطبّاء لإدخاله مجدّداً إلى غرفة العناية المكثّفة، متظاهرين بأنهم يحاولون إنعاشه. خلْف الباب، هتفت حناجر الآلاف: «يا رب». لكن أبو صبيح كان قد استشهد، ليتوزّع نبضه في أفئدة الآلاف من مُحبّيه.
«انتهى الكلام، بدأ الفعل باسم الله»؛ بهذه العبارة كان يفتتح «بطل حارة الياسمينة» كلّ موجة فعلٍ مقاوم. البَنّاء وفَنيّ الديكور، تَرك المجال الذي أبدع فيه، بعد أن أتمّ بناء بيت أشبه بقصر أموي نجا مصادفة من تعرية العصور وتوالُد الحضارات. سيغدو البيت الذي كان أُعدّ لمشروع الزواج، والذي يتوسّط منطقة حوش العطعوط في البلدة المسمّاة «دمشق الصغرى» لشديد ما تشبه العاصمة السورية العريقة، «بيت العمر» بعد اتّخاذه من قِبَل «عرين الأسود» مقرّاً رسمياً لإدارة العمليات، وكتابة البيانات، وتصنيع العبوات، وإحاطته بعشرات الأفخاخ من العبوات والكمائن، في انتظار لحظة لا شكّ قادمة.
في «الياسمينة» حيث ولد رفيقاه عبود صبح ومحمد العزيزي، ولد الحَوح وتربى، وحيداً من الذكور بين شقيقاته الثلاث. ذاق مرارة الفقد واليتم مبكراً، فرحلت والدته وهو ابن 9 سنوات إثر نوبة صحّية مفاجئة. أكمل دراسته حتى الصفّ العاشر، ثمّ ترك الدراسة ليتحمّل مشقة العمل. في مقتبل العمر، تجرّع مرارة الاعتقال (2011 و 2018)، ثمّ المطاردة والتهديد الدائم بالتصفية. إلى جانب الاستعداد الهائل للتضحية بالمال والنفس، حملت شخصية «أبو صبيح» قدْراً عالياً من الإلهام والتأثير، فهو «محبّ، وصادق في مشاعره، ومخلص حتى الموت لأصدقائه»، يقول والده. أمّا في المقاومة، فقد التقط الرجل مع رفيقه العزيزي، مستوى التعقيد المجتمعي والحزبي الذي يَحكم مدينة نابلس، فكان تشكيل حالة «عرين الأسود» الجامعة لكلّ ألوان الطيف الفصائلي، عبوراً من مأزق الحرج الذي تولّده تلك التعقيدات. كذلك، أجاد «البطل»، على نحو شديد الفعالية صياغة خطاب إعلامي جديد، فهو من دبّج النسق الإعلامي العاطفي الأخّاذ لبيانات «العرين».
رحل وديع «مخلصاً لله»، ووفيّاً لعهده مع رفيقه تامر الكيلاني بأن «نستشهد معاً» بفارق يومَين اثنين فقط. رحل ولا يزال صدى كلماته يتردّد في أزقّة البلدة: «المهمّ أن نترك أثراً… ثمّ لِنُقتل بَعدها… لن يُكسر ظَهر المدينة بَعدي».
عبد الله أبو التين… مَن ألبس الغرابة ثوب الممكن
كان صادماً للأطبّاء في «مستشفى الشهيد خليل سليما» الحكومي في مدينة جنين، أن يكتشفوا بعد أن أماطوا اللثام عن وجه مقاومٍ غارق بدمائه، أنه هو نفسه زميلهم الدكتور عبد الله الأحمد أبو التين. في قسم الاستقبال، خاض الطاقم الطبّي ملحمة استمرّت ثلاث ساعات لإنقاذ حياته، انتهت برحيله الصادم لكلّ مَن عرفه. في يوم الجمعة 14/10/2022، وفي خلال اجتياح جيش الاحتلال لمخيم جنين، همّ بالخروج على غير عادته في ذلك اليوم، اعترضه طفله زين سائلاً: «على وين يا بابا»، فأجابه بما يشبه المزاح: «رايح أطخ على الجيش حبيبي». غادر بيته مسّلماً مبتسماً، قبل أن يعود إليه محمولاً على الأكتاف.
الطبيب المشتبِك كان قد عمل لسنوات طويلة في المهنة التي أخلص في حُبّها، إذ أضحت طريقه إلى قلوب مئات الفقراء الذين كان يعالجهم بالمجّان خارج ساعات دوامه الرسمي. عقب ذلك، شغل منصب مدير وحدة التراخيص في وزارة الصحة. يصفه زميله الدكتور نجي نزال في حديث صحافي بالقول: «كان إنساناً بكلّ ما تحمل الكملة من معنى، متواضعاً، لا تغيب الابتسامة عن وجهه»، مضيفاً: «كان كتوماً جدّاً، وما قُدرته على إخفاء كوْنه مقاوماً ميدانياً ومؤسِّساً لجناح عسكري في جنين إلّا خير دليل على هذا، فرغم علاقتنا المتينة لم نلحظ أبداً أن لديه هذا التوجّه».
في عالمَين موازيَين، عاش «المسؤول الكبير في وزارة الصحة». يذهب إلى عمله بسيّارته الفارهة وبذلته الأنيقة، وفي المساء، يعود ليجالس أمّه وعائلته وطفلَيه، ثمّ يخرج متخفّياً لينخرط في عمله المقاوم. «يجيد الطبيب المقاوم استخدام السلاح على نحو مبدع»، يقول أبو محمد، وهو أحد رفاقه في «كتائب شهداء الأقصى»، مضيفاً في حديثه إلى «الأخبار»: «عاش حكيم الكتائب حياة مترفة، فهو يمتلك معرض سيّارات في جنين، ومقتدر مادياً، وقد بذل وقته وأمواله في بناء خلايا الكتائب، وأنفق عليها لشراء الأسلحة (…) يمتلك حسّاً أمنياً عالياً، خلال سنوات من عمله في بناء وتأسيس الكتائب، لم يتجاوز عدد مَن يعرفون بدوره أصابع اليد العشرة».
قضى الطبيب المشتبِك، كاشفاً برحيله تفاصيل غابت طوال سنيّ حياته الـ43، وجامِعاً بين «البالطو» الطبّي الأبيض وسمّاعة علاج المرضى وبين الزيّ العسكري والبندقية، في تمازُج استثنائي لرجل ألبسَ الغرابة ثوب الممكن، والاستثناء طابع العاديّة.
كلّما اقتربت الحكومة الإسرائيلية العتيدة من إبصار النور، كلّما ارتفع منسوب الإرهاب والإجرام في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلّة، في ما من شأنه أن يرسم بوضوح معالم المرحلة الجديدة التي يُقدِم عليها الفلسطينيون، والتي تضعهم في مواجهة تحدّيات قاتمة وخطيرة. وعلى رغم ثقل وطأة المجزرة التي ارتكبها العدو أمس في مخيم جنين، والتي خلّفت حزناً وغضباً في عموم فلسطين، إلّا أن إصرار المقاومة على الاشتباك مع الاحتلال، وحالة الالتفاف الشعبي التي تحظى بها خصوصاً في الضفة الغربية، ينبئان بأن «كواسر الأمواج» الآتية، قد لا تفعل أكثر ممّا فعلته «كاسر الأمواج» الأولى
رام الله | كلّما اقتربت الحكومة الإسرائيلية العتيدة من إبصار النور، كلّما ارتفع منسوب الإرهاب والإجرام في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلّة، في ما من شأنه أن يرسم بوضوح معالم المرحلة الجديدة التي يُقدِم…
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بعد عام ونصف عام من هبّة أيار، “فَطِنَ” جهاز “الشاباك” إلى اعتقال الفلسطيني طارق كيوان من بلدة جديدة المكر في الجليل الغربي. اعتقالٌ رافقتْه محاولة إلصاق تهم أمنية خطيرة بطارق، بينها “وضع عبوة على…
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A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has denounced the fatal shooting of a Palestinian high-school student during a raid by “Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] troops on the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin, terming repeated “Israeli” assaults as a futile attempt to stop Palestinian resistance.
Ahmed al-Modallal said on Monday evening that the IOF’s and settlers’ recurrent assaults and acts of aggression across the occupied West Bank will never manage to discourage Palestinians from treading the path of resistance.
“Ever since the martyrdom of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, Jenin has been the scene of Palestinians’ resistance and struggles [against ‘Israel’]. The Jenin Brigades is now brandishing the flag of resilience and has evolved from a group to a popular revolutionary movement,” Modallal said.
The high-ranking Islamic Jihad leader emphasized that the “Israeli” entity is now facing frequent crises due to resistance operations and Jenin has turned into a nightmare for the regime.
“In light of the possibility of the formation of a far-right ‘Israeli’ cabinet, we [resistance forces] are preparing for a fierce battle and confrontation. The resistance front is constantly developing its weapons and beefing up its military might,” Modallal noted.
He stated that resistance fighters are strong-minded to continue their struggle against the occupying “Israeli” regime and expand their combat capabilities.
“The resistance front has all options on the table to deal with the ‘Israeli’ enemy. It will never retreat from its path to defend the Palestinian land, nation and their sanctities,” Modallal said.
The Palestinian Authority’s [PA] Ministry of Health said Mahmoud al-Saadi, 18, was killed by the IOF on Monday in the northern occupied West Bank city of Jenin. He was shot in the stomach.
At least four other Palestinians were wounded after being shot, according to the ministry and local journalists.
The PA’s Ministry of Education mourned Saadi in a statement. It said he was a student at the Farhat Hashad Boys Secondary School in Jenin and that he had been killed on his way to school.
The IOF troops have recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.
Since the start of 2022, the IOF have killed at least 199 Palestinians, including 47 children, in the West Bank, occupied East al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations, the number of Palestinians killed by the apartheid “Israeli” entity in the occupied West Bank this year is the highest it has been in 16 years.
Local and international rights groups have condemned the entity’s excessive use of force and “shoot-to-kill policy” against Palestinians.
MEMBERS OF THE LIONS’ DEN HOLD THEIR WEAPONS NEXT TO A FLAG FLYING THE LIONS’ DEN LOGO DURING A MEMORIAL SERVICE OF MOHAMMED AL-AZIZI AND ABDUL RAHMAN SOBH WHO WERE KILLED BY ISRAELI FORCES, IN THE WEST BANK CITY OF NABLUS ON SEPTEMBER 2, 2022. (PHOTO: SHADI JARAR’AH/ APA IMAGES)
The Lions’ Den was relatively unknown outside of Nablus until a few months ago but today they have gained hero-like status across Palestine — for leading a revival of armed resistance against Israeli colonialism. This is their story.
The streets of the Old City of Nablus are quieter than usual.
The typically bustling streets, filled with the sights, smells, and sounds of one of the oldest markets in Palestine, are almost unrecognizable. Most shops and businesses are shuttered; those who are open are noticeably somber, a far cry from the usual animated calls of street vendors advertising their wares to crowds of shoppers passing by.
“This is not common to Nablus,” Abu Ayyad, 72, told Mondoweiss as he sat inside his shop, packaging halkoum sweets — a Nabulsi version of Turkish Delight which he has been making and selling from his shop in the al-Yasmina neighborhood for over 60 years.
Bullet holes riddle the old stone buildings and the rusting iron doors that line the streets. Some of the destruction dates back to the first and second Intifadas. But the newer cars parked along the cobblestone streets, covered in bullet holes and broken glass, remind passersby of the freshness of these wounds.
“What’s happening now in Nablus reminds me of the level of destruction that happened in 2002 when the Israeli forces invaded Nablus,” Sameh Abdo, 52, a resident of the Old City told Mondoweiss as he passed through the narrow alleyways of the al-Yasmina quarter.
“The destruction of the city, the homes, the buildings. We haven’t seen this type of devastation in years,” he said.
Down the road, one man sits outside his shop, piled with old radios, speakers, and other odds and ends. He smokes his cigarette in silence, soaking in the words of the song blasting on one of the newer speakers in his collection. It’s an anthem dedicated to lions.
There are little to no foreigners present, a new reality created by design, not by accident. The presence of anyone or anything unknown to the locals here is considered a potential threat, and understandably so.
Over the past few months the residents of the Old City have grown increasingly wary and suspicious of any foreign presence in their streets. Too many times, undercover Israeli forces entered the city in disguise, after the blood of the young men who have made these streets their home.
Such was the case on Monday, October 25, just after midnight. The streets were quiet, and in the cover of night, Israeli undercover special forces entered the boundaries of the city. Their targets were a group of young men, armed and ready in their hideout in the al-Yasmina quarter of the Old City, but seemingly unaware of the danger that lurked around the corner.
They call themselves the “Lions’ Den”, Areen al-Usud in Arabic. A novel armed resistance group, relatively unknown outside of Nablus until a few months ago, the young fighters have gained hero-like status across Palestine.
In the streets of Nablus’ Old City, however, the lions are more than just mythical heroes. They are the brothers, sons, and friends of the people here. They are people’s neighbors — neighbors who watched them grow up, once kids buying snacks from the shop down the road, and causing a ruckus with the other neighborhood kids.
Now those cubs are lions, and they have taken it upon themselves to do something many believed to be impossible after decades under the boot of the Israeli occupation and its partners in the Palestinian Authority: reviving popular armed resistance.
The origin story
The emergence of the Lions’ Den into the Palestinian public consciousness can be traced back to the summer, when a stoic, narrow-faced and handsome young man cut through a crowd of thousands of people in the middle of the city of Nablus — his rifle in his right hand, the casket of his friend on his left.
As he marched through the crowd in the funeral procession for his fallen comrades, passersby saluted the young man. In a viral video, one man struggles to grab his hand, still wrapped tightly around his rifle, and kisses it. The young man’s face did not flinch.
شهيد يودع شهيد … الشهيد إبراهيم النابلسي في وداع رفيق دربه الشهيد ابو صالح قبل عدة ايام. pic.twitter.com/wQjA56HbxS
— Hisham Abu Shaqrah | هشام أبو شقرة (@HShaqrah) August 9, 2022
The young man was Ibrahim Nabulsi, just 18 years old at the time. Known locally as the “Lion of Nablus,” with a mysterious reputation as a fierce fighter who had managed to evade several arrest and assassination attempts by the Israelis, the young Nabulsi skyrocketed into popular fame and admiration after his showing at the funeral.
At the time, Nabulsi and his comrades were part of a group who called themselves the Nablus Brigades, Katibet Nablus in Arabic, operating out of the Old City. They had been active for months, conducting shooting operations across the northern West Bank.
Modeled after the Jenin Brigades to the north, the group was formed in early 2022, and was comprised primarily of young men formerly aligned with the Saraya Al-Quds (Al Quds Brigades), the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement.
But many of the group’s members and leaders hailed from different political factions. Nabulsi had formerly aligned himself with the Fatah movement; others had origins with Hamas, and even the leftist Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Like the Jenin Brigades, the Nablus Brigades were cross-factional, and while they had money coming in from various sources, they did not officially align themselves with one political party. They were fighting in the name of Palestine, and no one else.
The Israeli government’s first major operation targeting the Nablus Brigades happened in February, when Israeli special forces raided Nablus and ambushed a vehicle, showering it with bullets and extra-judicially assassinating three Palestinian resistance fighters which Israel claimed were wanted.
The three were Ashraf Mubaslat, Adham Mabrouka and Mohammad Dakhil. There was a fourth passenger — some reports said he was injured and arrested by the army, others said he managed to escape. Many speculated him to be Ibrahim al-Nabulsi.
At the time, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (the military wing of Fatah) claimed the three as its members. But they had recently broken off from Fatah, carrying out a number of shooting operations across Nablus in another name. Israeli defense officials were describing them as a “renegade” cell.
Around the same time, Israel’s military apparatus launched Operation Break the Wave, an open-ended massive operation across the occupied West Bank to “thwart terrorism activities,” and growing armed resistance in Jenin and Nablus.
In April, Israeli army chief of staff, Aviv Kochavi, warned: “Our mission is simple—we need to stop terrorism and to restore safety and a sense of security. We will do whatever it takes, whatever is necessary, for however long and wherever needed, until both safety and the sense of security are restored.”
Yet despite the increase of deadly Israeli military raids in Nablus and Jenin, the number of operations and armed resistance activities, whether through organized groups or independently, continued to rise. Rather than break the wave, Operation Break the Wave seemed only to be conjuring a tsunami.
At the end of July, months after Operation Break the Wave began, the Israeli army launched a massive raid on the al-Yasmina neighborhood in the Old City of Nablus. It was the first time since 2002 that the army was conducting a raid in the area, targeting who they said were Palestinians suspected of carrying out a shooting operation targeting Israeli soldiers and settlers as they raided Joseph’s Tomb a month before.
During the raid, resistance fighters fired heavily at Israeli forces, as they barricaded themselves inside the home of Mohammad al-Azizi, who is widely known to be the founder of the Lions’ Den. Israeli forces surrounded the home, bombarding it with explosives and gunfire, overpowering the fighters inside.
After a three-hour shootout, Mohammad al-Azizi, 25, and Aboud Suboh, 28, were killed in the raid, as they reportedly provided cover for their fellow comrades to escape. Israeli media reported that one of the primary targets of the raid, Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, had evaded capture once again.
While both al-Azizi and Suboh were claimed as members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, locally they were known to be some of the earliest members of the Nablus Brigades. It was at their funeral on July 24 that Nabulsi, donning a flak jacket and his rifle, paid tribute to his fallen comrades, further propelling his status as an icon in the city.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians circulated videos and photos of Nabulsi at the funeral. Suddenly, the Lion of Nablus and the group he fought with were becoming household names outside the bounds of their city.
It was only two weeks later that Nabulsi would meet the same fate as his fellow fighters. During a raid on the Old City on August 9, Nabulsi was killed while fighting the Israeli army. Two other members of the brigades who were fighting alongside Nabulsi were killed during the raid: Islam Sbuh, 32, and Hussein Jamal Taha, 16.
In a voice message shared widely on Palestinian social media, purportedly recorded by Nabulsi and sent to his comrades shortly before he was killed, a calm and collected Nabulsi can be heard saying:
“I love you so much. If I am martyred, guys, I love my mother. Take care of the homeland after I’m gone, and my final will to you, on your honor: don’t let go of the rifle — on your honor. I’m surrounded, and I am going towards my martyrdom.”
In his death, the Lion of Nablus was solidified as an icon, and the group he fought with became firmly implanted in the public consciousness. Following the killing of al-Nabulsi, the Den of Lions, now void of its founder and first fighters, began appealing to the public for protection.
LIONS’ DEN OFFICIAL TELEGRAM ACCOUNT PHOTO (PHOTO: TELEGRAM ACCOUNT OF AREEN AL-USUD)
Two weeks after the killing of Nabulsi, a new Telegram channel was created alongside a photo of Mohammad al-Azizi and Aboud Suboh holding up their rifles. Overlaid on top of the photograph was a new logo, reminiscent of the symbols used to represent the Fatah and Islamic Jihad armed wings. But this new symbol, showing the Dome of the Rock sitting underneath two crossed rifles, alongside an icon of an armed fighter in the middle of a map of Palestine, did not belong to any of the established political factions.
Plastered across a black banner was the name of the group in Arabic, underneath it a short line of text that read: “The official representative channel of the Lions’ Den.”
Gaining popularity
On September 2, in a memorial for al-Azizi and Suboh, the Lions’ Den made their first official appearance as a group in the Old City, drawing crowds of thousands. A militant from the group, clad in black military gear from head to toe, face covered in a black balaclava and sporting a black bucket hat, stood on the stage facing the throngs of people. Flanked by fighters with upraised weapons on either side, he read out the charter of the Lions’ Den.
“We salute those who have walked in the footsteps of al-Yasser and Yassin and Abu Ali Mustafa and Shikaki,” he said, referring, respectively, to the Fatah founder and late President, Yasser Arafat, the Hamas founder, Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, and the PFLP former Secretary General, Abu Ali Mustafa. “We have come here today, 40 days after the death of the Den’s lions, and in light of the burning revolution of our people in Jerusalem, in Gaza, in Jeningrad [Arafat’s Second Intifada-era stylization of Jenin after Stalingrad]…we have come to tell you that the spark began in the Old City [of Nablus] when our leader Abu Ammar formed the first cells of the revolution in the al-Yasmina neighborhood [during the Second Intifada].”
LIONS’ DEN LEADERS ADDRESS A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR MOHAMMED AL-AZIZI AND ABOUD SUBOH IN THE WEST BANK CITY OF NABLUS ON SEPTEMBER 2, 2022. (PHOTO: SHADI JARAR’AH/APA IMAGES)
The charter went on to preach a message of independent resistance, free of the shackles of the old political factions. They vowed to continue to conduct operations across the West Bank targeting Israeli army positions and settlers. They addressed the PA security forces, who have a thorny history with armed groups in the Old City of Nablus, emphasizing that the group’s focus was confronting the Israeli occupation, not the PA.
In the following weeks, the group announced that it had conducted dozens of operations targeting Israeli army and settler positions across the West Bank, primarily in the Nablus area. On October 11, the den claimed responsibility for a shooting operation that left one Israeli soldier dead near the illegal Shave Shomron settlement in the Nablus district.
As the group stepped up their operations, the popularity of the Lions’ Den continued to soar. Over the course of two months, the group amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on platforms like Telegram, with their official channel boasting over 230,000 followers — more than any other Palestinian political faction. On TikTok, montages of the group’s fallen fighters cut together to the tune of the Lions’ Den anthem flooded fan accounts dedicated to the group.
While social media can often feel disconnected from the real world, the popularity of the Lions’ Den online was even more tangible in the streets than it is online.
In the alleyways of the al-Yasmina neighborhood, just one day after the October 25 raid that killed three members of the group, including senior fighter Wadee al-Hawah, young Palestinians from outside the city crowd the alleyways.
Some young folks eagerly ask shopkeepers where the home of the “hero martyr” Wadee al-Hawah is. A man points up to a crumbling facade of an old stone second-floor home. The youth ask if they can go up to the house, but they’re stopped by a group of stoic young men blocking the entrance at the door. So they pull out their phones instead, joining crowds of passersby taking photos of the home where the Lions’ Den leader was killed.
A few steps down the road, a woman salutes to a memorial for the slain fighter Tamer al-Kilani, who was assassinated on October 23 in the same spot where photos of him now lay, adorned with Palestinian flags. Another young mother tells her son to stand in front of the memorial to take a photo.
“Salute him, dear,” she says, as the young boy raises his right hand to his forehead.
Back down the road, outside the old radio repair shop, Jamal Hamou, 57, turns up the speakers blasting the Lions’ Den anthem. When asked what he thought of the group, he beat his fist to his chest, over his heart, a wide grin spreading across his face.
JAMAL HAMOU (PHOTO: AKRAM AL-WAARA/MONDOWEISS)
“The Lions’ Den, to the people of the Old City and outside of it, means everything to us,” he said. “These are our sons, our brothers, our boys. They have done something that so many before them tried and failed to do. They represent trustworthiness and honor, and they have made us proud, may God protect them, and bless those who have passed.”
Around the corner from Hamou’s shop, the famous Al-Aqsa Sweets, known across Palestine for its Nablus knafeh, is riddled with bullet holes. Usually packed to the brim with hungry customers, the shop is relatively empty. No one is in the mood for sweets, one of the owners tells Mondoweiss.
“I have worked here since I was five years old. I have lived here my whole life, I was here during the first and second Intifadas,” Basil al-Shantir, whose family owns the shop, told Mondoweiss. “What is happening right now is different. During the intifadas there was much more destruction on a larger scale, but what is happening now is not insignificant,” he said.
“The Lions’ Den is barely a few months old, but they have taken over the public consciousness in a way that is unprecedented.”
POSTER AT MEMORIAL FOR WADEE AL-HAWAH, MASHAAL BAGHDADI, HAMDI QAIM, ALI ANTAR, AND HAMDI SHARAF (PHOTO: AKRAM AL-WAARA/MONDOWEISS)
Israel threatened
A few kilometers outside of the Old City, the day after the deadly raid on the Old City, thousands of Palestinians gathered at the memorial for the “moons of Nablus,” the five Palestinians who were killed.
It was a typical scene for a martyr’s memorial, held for three days after someone is killed by the occupation. Posters of Wadee al-Hawah, Mashaal Baghdadi, Hamdi Qaim, Ali Antar, and Hamdi Sharaf lined the entrance and walls of the local community center where the wake was being held. Family members of the deceased lined up at the door, greeting mourners who had come to pay their respects.
But this memorial was different in one small, but distinguishable regard. It was largely devoid of any symbols marking the political affiliation of the martyrs, a typical feature at the funerals of Palestinian martyrs.
Inside, Mazen Dunbuk, 40, a spokesperson for the Fatah movement in Nablus’ Old City, sat down for lunch, customarily served in honor of the martyrs.
“Young people are thirsty for resistance, for armed resistance, and for a change of the status quo of the past 20 years. And this is what Israel is scared of.”
Mazen Dunbuk
“The funeral of the five martyrs was one of the biggest seen in Palestine in years,” he said. “This is a sign to the [Israeli] occupation, and to the Palestinian leaders, that the public support for these young men is huge,” Dunbuk told Mondoweiss.
Aware of the reputation his political party holds, as the majority part of the increasingly unpopular PA government, Dunbuk said matter-of-factly: “We know that people are tired of the different political factions, they want a united resistance. Nothing is more evident of that than the popularity of the Lions’ Den,” he said.
“Young people are thirsty for resistance, for armed resistance, and for a change of the status quo of the past 20 years,” he said. “And this is what Israel is scared of.”
The threat that the group poses to Israel was evident in the military apparatus’ focus on destroying the group at all costs. In the wake of the October 11 operation that killed one Israeli soldier, the army enforced a more than two-week closure of the entire Nablus district, affecting the lives of more than 400,000 Palestinians.
In the span of just a few days in the last week of October, the army conducted several raids and operations targeting members of the Lions’ Den and their areas of operation. In addition to the targeted assassinations of Tamer al-Kilani and Wadee al-Hawah, several members of the group or those affiliated with them were arrested, including the brother of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi.
The return of Israel’s use of targeted assassinations against resistance members evoked more memories of the first and second intifada, indicating to locals that the army was ramping up its operations to quash the group.
But while the army has snuffed out the lives of several of the Lions’ Den’s leaders and senior members, what it has so far failed to do is squash the influence that the group has wielded over Palestinians, primarily young people, across the West Bank who have been inspired by their messages of independent resistance, unaffiliated with the political parties of yesterday.
And for Israel, that is where the group’s most dangerous aspect lies.
In terms of actual casualties, the Lions’ Den itself has not claimed a significant number of deaths or injuries of Israeli settlers or soldiers. Most of its operations targeting Israeli positions across the West Bank have resulted in some injuries, though not always.
Yet the group’s influence has inspired more “lone-wolf” operations across the West Bank that have proved destructive for Israel. In the nine days since the Israeli military assault on Nablus that killed al-Hawah, at least six operations were carried out across the West Bank by individual Palestinians not officially affiliated with the Lions’ Den or other armed groups.
In the operations, which targeted both settlers and Israeli military positions, several soldiers were wounded, and even one settler was killed. And most notably, Udai al-Tamimi, a young man from Shu’fat refugee camp, killed an Israeli soldier stationed at the Shu’fat military checkpoint in a drive-by lone wolf shooting, and the massive manhunt that ensued lasted for ten days and put the entire camp under siege, before Tamimi himself came out of hiding and attacked and injured Israeli guards stationed outside the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim — notably far away from where the manhunt’s efforts were focused — before he was shot and killed by the guards.
Separate from the armed operations seemingly inspired by the group, the Lions’ Den has forgone the traditional model of hosting dressed-up press conferences or issuing curated public statements that are filtered through standard media outlets and rendered into soundbites, carving out instead a mode of communication with the broader Palestinian community, using public platforms like Telegram to speak directly to Palestinians, always signing off “your brothers in the Lions’ Den.”
On October 16, almost a week after Israel closed off the city of Nablus, the Lions’ Den appealed to Palestinians for a night of disruption, inviting people from across the West Bank to shout from their rooftops and make noise in the streets in response to reports in the Israeli media about army promises to “finish off” the armed group “from the root.”
“To all citizens, to our fathers, mothers, siblings, and children,” the statement read. “Come out tonight on the rooftops at exactly 12:30 a.m. Let us hear your cheers of Allahu Akbar [God is Great]. We want the last sound we hear to be your voices,” the group wrote.
And Palestinians responded to the call: from Nablus, and extending to Ramallah, Tulkarem, Hebron, and Jerusalem.
On the same day, the Lions’ Den released a statement, reaffirming that the group did not belong to any political party, and had “turned its back on all disputes and rivalries.
“The fact that they are independent is drawing more youth in, and Israel knows that the danger of the group lies in their political independence,” Basel al-Shantir told Mondoweiss outside his knafeh shop in the Old City. “Because when you do not belong to an official party, you cannot be pressured or blackmailed into bad deals and watered-down agreements.”
Back at the memorial for the five martyrs killed on the 25th, a young man sits solemnly in the corner of a quiet room. He identifies himself as a member of the Lions’ Den.
“Wadee and the others have done something, they’ve created something that the Palestinian political factions have been unsuccessful in doing for decades,” the young man, who requested anonymity, told Mondoweiss.
“They brought people together, to create one united resistance, without political factions,” the young man continued. “Entire nations have tried to do this and failed.”
When asked why he and other young men were inspired to take up arms, he said: “we are under occupation, and this occupation is killing us everyday. Wadee and the others woke up every day to news of more martyrs, more settler attacks, and more of our homeland being stolen.”
“When we fight we are demanding our dignity, something our own government has failed to do for 30 years.”
The role of the PA
On the night of October 26, shortly after the first day of the memorial for the five martyrs in Nablus came to a close, news broke that four members of the Lions’ Den had turned themselves over the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF).
One of the men, Mahmoud al-Bana, a top commander in the Lions’ Den who was injured in the raid the night before, wrote a statement on Facebook, addressing the Palestinian people about his decision to hand himself into the PA.
“My comrades were martyred by my side, and I was wounded with them several times, and my martyrdom was declared more than once,” al-Bana wrote. “By God’s power and kindness, I am alive today.”
“Today, after consulting with my brothers in the struggle, myself and my comrades-in-arms, it was agreed with our brothers in the [Palestinian] security services to surrender ourselves in order to protect us from this brutal occupier,” he said.
As controversy erupted across Palestinian social media over the fighters’ decision to turn themselves in, the Lions’ Den released an official statement, saying that “whoever surrenders himself, this is their decision and choice.”
In another statement the next day, the group said that those who believed the Lions’ Den was disbanding were “living under an illusion.”
But the impact of the fighters’ decisions to hand themselves over to the PA could not be denied, as the streets and the internet buzzed with talk of the future of the Lions’ Den. Would the group survive the next inevitable Israeli attack? Or would there even be a Lions’ Den to fight by that point?
One certainty remained clear: the Israeli government were not the only ones that wanted the Lions’ Den off the streets, and out of the Palestinian public consciousness for good.
In late September, as the Lions’ Den continued to gain popularity in the West Bank and steadily upped their operations, PA security forces raided the city of Nablus in order to arrest two Lions’ Den fighters who were wanted by Israel, Musaab Shtayyeh, 30, and Ameed Tbeileh, 21.
One Palestinian, 55-year-old Firas Yaish, was killed, while several others were injured. The raid sparked fierce confrontations and widespread backlash, as Palestinians criticized the PA’s ongoing security coordination with Israel, and what they viewed as their own government’s attempts to quash Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.
“For us it’s the battleground, and for them the diplomacy,” a young 20-year-old fighter told Mondoweiss on the evening of September 20, as PA forces clashed with local youth in the city the day after the arrest of Shtayyeh and Tbeileh.
After the September 19 raid and the subsequent public backlash, the PA stayed relatively silent on the subject of the Lions’ Den, opting instead for a policy of quiet neutralization, working behind the scenes to offer fighters of the Lions’ Den amnesty in the ranks of the PASF in exchange for putting down their weapons, and agreeing to serve time in PA prisons.
Similar to the deals struck with former fighters with the armed wing of Fatah after the Second Intifada, the PA was offering these young men safety — safety from the inevitable: imprisonment, or more likely, death, at the hands of the Israelis. And as the Israeli military upped its attacks on the group through targeted assassinations and large-scale raids, the PA’s proposition became even more appealing.
On October 31, a week after al-Bana and three others handed themselves over to the PA, another senior fighter in the Lions’ Den, Mohammad Tabanja, reportedly followed suit. A source within the PA told Mondoweiss that at least a dozen members of the Lions’ Den had already turned themselves over to the PASF. Mondoweiss could not independently confirm that number.
Three days later, in the heart of the Old City, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh held a press conference, surrounded by dozens of journalists and foreign diplomats — a sight the Old City had not witnessed in months.
Shtayyeh’s statements largely addressed Israel’s ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territory, criticizing the “collective punishment” policies imposed on the Palestinian people. While Shtayyeh made no mention of the Lions’ Den or of armed resistance, a second message was clear from his appearance in the Old City: the PA had restored “order” and control to the city, at least on the surface.
PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER MOHAMMED SHTAYYEH VISITS NABLUS ON NOVEMBER 3, 2022. (PHOTO: SHADI HATEM/APA IMAGES)
As the future of the Lions’ Den hangs in the balance, so does the trajectory of the current Palestinian mobilization. The current moment is defined largely by such groups and the influence they wield, inspiring others to take up arms against the occupation. So it is without a doubt that the future of the group will affect the outcome of the current moment, as well as whether the wave of armed resistance we are witnessing will continue to swell, or slowly subside and fade into the distance.
On November 1, the same day the most right-wing, extremist government in Israeli history was elected into power, the Lions’ Den released their most recent statement.
“The most important thing is to you, and everyone who believes that our fire has subsided: a volcano is brewing.
For those who call for peace, look at their elections and you will see their choices.
As for the resistance fighters from the Lions’ Den, or from the blessed factions, or our lone wolves — strike them everywhere. What kind of life is this, that we live in peace with those who abuse our blood and the blood of our children, men, and sisters?
Your brothers, the Lions’ Den.”
Mariam Barghouti is the Senior Palestine Correspondent for Mondoweiss.
Yumna Patel is the Palestine News Director for Mondoweiss.
Israeli occupation forces shoot dead a Palestinian youth in an execution-style murder and seriously wound another near the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
18-year-old Palestinian martyr Musab Mohammad Mahmoud Nafal
A Palestinian youth was martyred and another was critically injured, Saturday evening, after the Israeli occupation forces opened fire on them near the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the occupation forces “targeted two Palestinians with gunfire in an ambush near the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah.”
On its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that “the Palestinian youth, Musab Mohammad Mahmoud Nafal, 18, succumbed to the wounds he sustained after being shot at near Sinjil.”
Dozens of Palestinians took part in the mourning procession of martyr Musab Nafal on his way from Ramallah Hospital to the Palestine Medical Complex in the city after he was pronounced dead. Slogans calling for pursuing resistance against the occupation and taking revenge for its crimes against the Palestinians echoed across the city.
Last Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of 4 Palestinians and the wounding of several others by none other than the Israeli occupation forces, in Jenin and its camp. Among the martyrs was a leader of Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank and a leader of Jenin Brigade Farouk Jamil Salameh.
With sadness and tears, Palestinians bid final farewell to the Palestinian youth, Musab Nafal, 18, who was succumbed to injuries sustained by Israeli occupation live bullets near the town of Singel in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. pic.twitter.com/x4jPglCK6V
Dozens of Palestinians took part in the mourning procession of martyr Musab Nafal on his way from Ramallah Hospital to the Palestine Medical Complex in the city after he was pronounced dead. Slogans calling for pursuing resistance against the occupation and taking revenge for its crimes against the Palestinians echoed across the city.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian teen, seriously injure another in attack north of occupied West Bank city of Ramallah
Last Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of 4 Palestinians and the wounding of several others by none other than the Israeli occupation forces, in Jenin and its camp. Among the martyrs was a leader of Al-Quds Brigades in the West Bank and a leader of Jenin Brigade Farouk Jamil Salameh.
Palestinians organized a rally in support of Palestinian Resistance in West Bank (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
– Benay Blend earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her scholarly works include Douglas Vakoch and Sam Mickey, Eds. (2017), “’Neither Homeland Nor Exile are Words’: ‘Situated Knowledge’ in the Works of Palestinian and Native American Writers”. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
On October 24, 2022, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network international coordinator, Charlotte Kates, and one of the founders of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), Khaled Barakat, arrived in Amsterdam to participate in the Week of Action for Return and Liberation of Palestine. No sooner had they arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol airport than immigration service, operated by Dutch military police, detained them for questioning.
After being interrogated about their political views–about Samidoun, about Masar Badil, and the week of action for liberation and return–they were denied entry and deported back to Canada where they will continue organizing and speaking out against Zionist repression of Palestinians. While saddened by this action, activists immediately spoke out, vowing to channel their anger into making the March even stronger despite efforts to quash the movement.
Calling on Palestinians to be “purveyors of consciousness not victimhood,” journalist Ramzy Baroud suggests that, while understanding that the reach of Zionist repression is important, communicating a sense of “collective victimhood” denies human agency to those who are oppressed.
When Samidoun issued a statement declaring that “our response to this attack on our organizing must be to make an even bigger, stronger, louder and more powerful stand with the Palestinian people, their resistance, and the liberation of Palestine,” they are answering Baroud’s request that Palestinians convey strength and fortitude in the face of Zionist oppression.
“The Palestinian struggle cannot be reduced to a conversation about poverty or the horrors of war,” Baroud continues, “but must be expanded to include the wider political contexts that led to the current tragedies in the first place.” Activists are doing this as well, calling attention to the history of repression against Barakat and Kates by the European state.
In their statement, Samidoun recalls the past history of repression against Barakat and Kates. In 2019, Barakat received a political ban due to his organizing among Palestinians living in Berlin, Germany at the time. After leaving Germany, Barakat and Kates, who are also a married couple, were banned from re-entry for many years. This was the cause cited as the reason for their denial of entry into the Schengen zone, though their ban did not extend to this region.
Indeed, there has been an established policy in Germany, the Netherlands and the European Union of attacking the Palestine solidarity movement. From banning Nakba commemorations to condemning organizations that are in solidarity with Palestinian liberation, these officials have a long history of repression not only in the diaspora but also of supporting the Zionist colonization of Palestine since Israel’s founding.
Significantly, Kates’ and Barakat’s most recent ban occurs as Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte was travelling to the settler colonial Zionist state for talks during a time of escalating colonial violence and repression. Rutte’s trip serves to link repression of Palestinian activism in the diaspora to increasing Israeli violence towards Palestinians in their own country.
From Charlotte Kates came a statement that voiced this link quite clearly: “The European Union always talks about human rights, but ignores them when it comes to Palestine. Palestine activists in all EU countries face repression. This deportation is therefore not just an attack on Khaled and me, but on the Palestinian movement as a whole.”
As in the diaspora, escalating Zionist violence in Palestine has fueled the rise of resistance groups, including the “Lions’ Den” and Jenin Brigades, which includes groups of people regardless of political affiliation across the West Bank. According to Hani Al-Masri, what distinguishes this movement is that it unites armed struggle with other forms of popular resistance, such as a general strike held recently in the West Bank.
In Gaza, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine organized a rally to support Palestinian resistance in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem. Saleh Nasser, a member of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front in the Gaza Strip, stressed that Palestinians much chose between a variety of resistance strategies to confront the Israeli Occupation.
“What [Israel] fail[s] to understand,” writes Ramzy Baroud, “is that the growing rebellion in the West Bank is not generated by a few fighters in Nablus and a few more in Jenin, but is the outcome of a truly popular sentiment.” This unity can also be seen in solidarity around the world, most recently in the quick response to European efforts to weaken the March in Brussels.
In response to the banning of Kates and Barakat, activists at Schiphol Airport held the Palestinian flag along with signs that read “long live the Palestinian Struggle.” Others presented a statement of solidarity with Kates and Barakat to the military police who detained and interrogated the movement’s leaders.
From a wide array of Palestine solidarity groups around the world came a quick response to the injustice, showing again a commitment to unity across many different lines. For example, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) urged activists to stand in solidarity with Kates and Barakat by supporting and/or organizing their own protests in conjunction with the March.
Al-Awda—The Palestine Right to Return Coalitioncalled on supporters to defend the right to organize for the right of return for Palestinian people, and accentuated that “our response to this attack on our organizing must be to make an even bigger, stronger, louder and more powerful stand with the Palestinian people, their resistance, and the liberation of Palestine.”
“For the Palestinian narrative to be truly relevant,” Baroud writes, “Palestinians must assume the role of the Gramscian intellectual, as purveyors of consciousness, and abandon the role of the victim intellectual altogether.” Given rising resistance in Palestine and growing solidarity around the world, his words are bearing fruit.
Reports back from the March also paint a clear picture of carrying on with strength and dignity despite the ban. Despite efforts to the contrary—the Israeli ambassador in Brussels demanded the cancellation of the March—all attempts to quash the spirit of participants have failed.
The week began with standing room only for the first events which focused on the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. These workshops followed a 1,000-strong demonstration and march to the prison in Lannemezan, France, where Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese struggler for Palestine, has been jailed for the past 39 years.
As the movement becomes stronger, there will be more efforts to silence Palestinian voices. “Let us be clear,” stated the organizers of the March,
“all of these show just why it is so urgent that our demonstration on Saturday 29 October be very loud, clear and massive, demanding accountability from European colonialism and imperialist powers for their ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people. Join us on Saturday, 29 October at Lumumba Square in Brussels at 2 pm, to march to the European Parliament in the March for Return and Liberation.”
Explaining why “Israel is Afraid of the Lions’ Den,” Baroud concludes that that Palestinians are “simply fed up with the Israeli occupation and with their collaborating leadership.” They are ready to put “it all on the line,” because, he predicts, the coming months are going to be critical for all Palestinians.
All the more reason for organizers of the March to call for “a clear demonstration that the Palestinian people will accept nothing less than return and liberation, from the river to the sea, and will hold Europe accountable for the colonial crimes and ongoing imperialist exploitation.”
Joining the March or organizing local activities for return and liberation, they conclude, is a step towards making this possible.
Steven Sahiounie There is a battle brewing in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Thousands of Israeli occupation forces will be deployed to face a growing resistance force. The ‘natives are restless’ and the Lions’ Den has mobilized to fight for their freedom and human rights.
500,000 illegal Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank in some 130 settlements. Today, the Israeli forces said dozens of settlers ran through Hawara, near Nablus, throwing rocks at Palestinian cars. The settlers used pepper spray on the Israeli commander as well as another soldier and sprayed another two soldiers at a nearby checkpoint. Settlers are allowed to intimidate Palestinians and destroy their property, while Palestinians are hunted down and killed by Israeli occupation forces.
The Palestinian youth have grown up under brutal military occupation and an apartheid state. The resistance in Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron has inspired rebellion against sieges and attacks. The Palestinian people living under the iron hand of oppression are ready to fight the Israeli occupation and are frustrated with their leadership which is seen as collaborating with the Israelis in keeping the status quo firmly in place. The resistance movement sees no benefit in maintaining the occupation and demands a dramatic change in their future.
The Palestinian youth reject the divisions among the factions in the politics of Palestine. The recent unity deal in Algeria has given them hope that political parties can work together in brigades such as the Lions’ Den, which has fighters from Hamas, Fatah, and others fighting together for a single goal of freedom.
On October 11, an Israeli soldier was killed in an attack north of Nablus, and two other shooting attacks against Israeli forces took place in Beit Ummar, near Hebron, and in Sur Baher, a neighborhood in Jerusalem.
On October 14, Israeli forces killed 20-year-old Mateen Dabaya in a raid on the Jenin refugee camp. Dr. Abdallah Abu Teen, 43, rushed to the aid of Dabaya in front of the Jenin hospital and was also shot and killed by the Israelis in his attempt to give medical care to the injured young man. Two Palestinian paramedics and several civilians were also wounded in the attack by the Israelis at the entrance to the hospital.
On October 15, a Palestinian in his twenties was killed north of Ramallah, and Israeli forces raided Nablus and arrested a Palestinian man while continuing to impose movement restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank, which is a hallmark of an apartheid state.
On October 16, Mohammad Turkman, 20, died of his wounds while in Israeli custody. He had been wounded and captured by Israeli forces in Jenin in late September.
On October 20, Mohammed Fadi Nuri, 16, died after being shot in the stomach last month by Israeli troops near the city of Ramallah.
The Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem is completely sealed in a siege by Israeli forces as a form of collective punishment following an attack there, and Israeli police announced that it arrested 50 Palestinians in Jerusalem recently.
Riyad Mansour, the representative of Palestine to the UN, has denounced attacks by Israeli occupation forces and called on the UN to comply with international law and Security Council resolutions. Mansour noted that Israeli forces and settler militias “are relentlessly harassing, intimidating and provoking the Palestinian people in a ruthless manner,” and condemned the new attack against the city of Jenin
The US enables Israel to remain an apartheid state
The United States of America, the champion of freedom and democracy, is currently sending billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine to fight for democracy. But, you won’t see the US sending a bullet to the Palestinians for their fight for democracy. The US is also the champion of ‘double standards’.
According to the various international human rights groups, which are often cited by the US as evidence of war crimes and atrocities by American foes, the Jewish State of Israel is an apartheid state. The US and her western liberal allies were the chief critics of the former apartheid state of South Africa, and the western criticism helped to fulfill the dreams of freedom and democracy in the land of Nelson Mandela.
The US is like a parent who allows Israel to continue self-destructive behavior. Some parents of teenage drug addicts will buy drugs for their children to protect them from danger and arrest. The parents are not willing to go through the tortuous procedure of rehab for the child, so they minimize the danger and make the drug addiction as safe as possible. This is known as enabling, and this is the role the US has chosen for itself in its relationship with Israel and Palestine. On the one hand, the US claims to support the democratic aspirations of all peoples but is unwilling to stand up to Israeli policies of racism, collective punishment, blockades, imprisonment without trial or legal aid, and other crimes perpetrated against the Palestinian people under occupation. The enabling stance of the US is destructive for both the US and the Palestinians, as the reputation of America suffers from global ridicule and shame.
Palestinian unity deal
Arab unity might be too much to ask for, but Palestinian unity has been agreed on in Algeria. Hamas, Fattah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLO, and others signed the deal brokered by Algerian President Abdulmajeed Tabboune. This deal resolves a 15-year political dispute among the various factions and looks forward to new elections.
“Jenin has demonstrated to the [Palestinian] leaders meeting in Algeria that national unity is built in the field,” Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said.
Why is the west bank resisting?
The Palestinian Authority has lost control in Nablus and Jenin the West Bank. The Palestinians view their leadership as an extension of Israeli control and oppression. The Lions’ Den in Nablus has claimed responsibility for the latest resistance operations against Israeli occupation forces.
On October 16, the Jenin Brigade announced they will support the Lions’ Den in their resistance to occupation, and this has raised the prospect of increased Israeli raids on Jenin and Nablus.
Benny Gantz, Israeli Defense Minister, trivialized the threat of the Lions’ Den when he made statements on how his occupation forces will capture and eliminate the members. Israel has depended on the divisions among the Palestinian factions. However, Israel has never before faced a unified force of motivated youth who are willing to die for freedom and a chance to create a new future for themselves and their families. Revolutions occasionally succeed.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 170 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza, since the beginning of 2022, making this year the deadliest since 2015.
Pope Francis, the UK churches, and the 13 denominations of Christians in Jerusalem have always maintained a position supporting a UN resolution for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine firstly, and secondly a final status of Jerusalem to be decided afterward. Previously the Christians of Jerusalem stated concern over moving embassies to Jerusalem, “We are certain that such steps will yield increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, moving us farther from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division.”
Truss has wanted to follow in the footsteps of President Trump who defied international law when he shifted the US embassy to Jerusalem. The Truss plan was first suggested in her letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), a pro-Israel lobby group, similar to the pro-Trump AIPAC in the US.
Wong also told reporters that “the Australian government remains committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state can coexist in peace and security within internationally recognized borders. We will not support an approach that undermines this prospect.”
The bravery and defiance of Ibrahim Nablusi, immortalized him as a heroic martyr and saw tens of thousands pack the streets of Nablus city, where the resistance fighter was killed, in order to attend his funeral.
There have been at least 11 large-scale Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip, four wars, and hundreds of attacks against the territory, resulting in the untold misery of the Gazan civilian population
The ongoing Palestinian uprising, along with the revival of the armed struggle inside the occupied West Bank, has largely been characterised by its tendencies as a popular movement, namely that there has been a chaotic reaction from the occupier. The past months’ developments have been an indicator of a major shift from the initial stages of the uprising and it’s time to take note.
The Palestinian armed uprising, inside the West Bank, can largely be traced back to the 11-day war that broke out in May, 2021, between the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and the Israeli military. Following this, although the armed fighters had been previously active, in September of 2021 when the ‘Jenin Brigades’ were officially formed and the action they began to take shook “Israel” to its core. 2022 has been a more violent year for the West Bank, than the besieged Gaza Strip, with the majority of Palestinians killed by the occupation forces this year being inside the West Bank, with nearly 170 dead so far.
The scenes of armed resistance attacks, which occur multiple times per day at this time, against Israeli forces and settlers, have brought back the tactics and brutality of the Zionist regime never witnessed inside the West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2007). Although the initial attacks that came from groups such as the Jenin brigades, the Tulkarem brigades, and the Nablus brigades, seemed to have been loosely organized and worked primarily to inspire later action, along with shaking up the Israeli “security system”, this seems to be no longer the case. What has marked a seismic shift in the conflict between the occupier and the resistance inside the West Bank, has been the introduction of the Areen al-Oussoud, or Lions’ Den group, that declared themselves out of the old city of Nablus on September 2nd.
The Gaza based resistance movement
Since the armed resistance in the West Bank was either destroyed or disbanded in the early 2000’s by the Israeli military and Palestinian Authority (PA), the armed struggle has been isolated into the hands of the movements operating out of the Gaza Strip. For a long time, there has been a successfully implemented strategy, by the Israelis and Americans, to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, during this time the resistance in Gaza – headed by Hamas primarily – had taken over the path of armed struggle.
There have been at least 11 large-scale Israeli assaults on the Gaza Strip, four wars, and hundreds of attacks against the territory, resulting in the untold misery of the Gazan civilian population. Since the imposition of the siege, by not only “Israel” and Egypt but more importantly by the collective Western governments, the strategy has been to pressure the Palestinian people who live inside the territory to overthrow Hamas as their democratically elected government. This strategy, implemented since the 2006 – not 2007 when the siege was tightened significantly and is often framed as having started – the sanctions against Gaza have failed to bring the resistance to its knees and this is owed to the resounding resilience of the Palestinian people.
For most of the history of the Hamas rule of Gaza, it had been “Israel” that had taken most of the initiative to strike first and to be on the offensive. It has been noted by many analysts and historians, that despite the bravery and constant innovations of the resistance, “they had largely proven ineffective at inflicting significant defeats upon the enemy”. The strategic thinking of the resistance began to undergo significant shifts, however, dating back to 2015, but truly showing steadiness from 2017, during the major dispute between Qatar and many of the Gulf States, in addition to other pro-Western reactionary Arab regimes.
In 2018, during the Great March of Return, the armed resistance movements – which had not been constantly fighting each other but had also not participated in a real unified command – decided to form the ‘Joint Operations Room’ of the Palestinian resistance. Although during most of 2018, the Israeli military would routinely attack the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and was constantly on the offensive, this would change by November of that same year.
Israeli agents had infiltrated the Gaza Strip in 2018, plotting to either assassinate or kidnap a commander in the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam brigades, named Nur Baraka. The Israeli agents were discovered and fled, one of them was shot dead in the process, whilst Israeli drone strikes were launched against the Gaza Strip. What ensued was a complete embarrassment for the Israeli political establishment, not only was the Israeli raid a complete failure, but the resistance showed a new unified strategy that we had not seen the likes of before. “Israel’s” then-minister of war, Avigdor Liberman, was so embarrassed that he resigned from his position. 300 rockets were fired at “Israel”, whilst the resistance fired anti-tank munitions that killed Israeli soldiers. A video was also released by the Sala al-Din brigades, which showed that at least 5 Israeli soldiers had been killed or mortally wounded in an explosive attack, an event that had happened in February but was covered up by the Israelis. The armed movement had laced Palestinian flagpoles with explosives, waited for Israeli soldiers to pull them down, and then detonated the devices.
Then, in early May 2019, the armed resistance movements in Gaza chose to strategically escalate tensions and open up a limited battle with the Israeli military, around 2 weeks prior to “Tel Aviv’s” hosting of the Eurovision song contest. In November 2019, “Israel” attempted to gain back some of its strategic initiatives, by attempting to isolate and target the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in both Gaza and Syria. Despite assassinating leading figures in the PIJ movement, most prominently Baha Abu Al-Atta, the attack did little to change the course of the armed struggle.
Fast forward to May 2021, when the battle of Saif al-Quds was declared by the Israeli military, the people of Palestine had unified against the ongoing desecration of the Holy Sites in the old city of al-Quds. Saif al-Quds was when the Joint Room came to real prominence and it was clear that all the groups resisting Israel were unified, this provided inspiration to the rest of the Palestinian population in the other occupied Palestinian territories. Until this moment, despite “Israel’s” three-day attack against the PIJ movement, back in August, Tel Aviv has failed to achieve the equation it had before 2018. The Zionist regime went from attacking Gaza at will, constantly launching any strikes it wanted, to being deterred from striking Gaza unless it was willing to commit to an all-out war and now it is the resistance in Gaza that plots to strike first, of strategic initiative.
Lessons learnt and the evolution of the West Bank struggle
One of the major issues that caused the setback of August this year, which had caught the resistance by surprise, was a fault made in the rhetoric of the Gaza-based resistance. “Israel” exploited this weakness in order to inflict a psychological blow against the resistance as a whole, it was clear that the resistance had not prepared for the scenario that befell them and although they reacted in a very rational way, within their means, the Israelis managed to score a pyrrhic victory on the propaganda front. The problem was, not that the resistance had acted in the wrong manner, but had projected great strength and made threats that weren’t intended on being followed through with, in the way that many had interpreted them.
“Israel’s” attack on Gaza in August may have resulted in political points for Prime Minister Yair Lapid and a distraction from the maritime border dispute with Lebanon if only the regime did not get greedy. Days later, the Israeli military sent in special forces units to assassinate the 19-year-old resistance fighter, Ibrahim Nablusi, yet, his killing served the opposite of its intended purpose. The bravery and defiance of Ibrahim Nablusi, immortalized him as a heroic martyr and saw tens of thousands pack the streets of Nablus city, where the resistance fighter was killed, in order to attend his funeral. As his mother held a pride-filled smile, whilst carrying her son’s body, thousands chanted Ibrahim Nablusi’s name and all over the West Bank young resistance fighters pledged to avenge his martyrdom. Instead of beating down the spirits of the Palestinian people and their belief in the armed struggle, Israel strengthened the resistance.
The mistake in the rhetoric of the Gaza-based resistance has undoubtedly been addressed now also, shown clearly through the statement released last Friday by the Joint Operations Room. This joint statement marks a turning point in the course of the armed struggle, as they not only have shown growth in their strategic rhetoric, but also they were dressed in a very interesting way. It should be noted that the Joint Room, which comprises all the serious armed movements in the Gaza Strip, dressed in military uniform, keffiyeh and did not wear anything to distinguish the resistance faction. This is symbolically powerful, as simultaneously the Lions’ Den group in Nablus is also refraining from identifying themselves with any single political or military party/movement.
The armed groups that have been formed throughout the West Bank are made up of young people, mostly between the ages of 18 to 25, who come from many different political backgrounds and choose to work together as a unified force. The Lions’ Den group has also received a lot of popular support for its methods, managing to amass demonstrators that will take to the streets of Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and beyond in order to support the resistance group. Unlike unity agreements that have been signed on paper in the past, this unity agreement has manifested itself in the physical world between armed resistance factions. It is clear that the resistance in Gaza is always taking notes of the popular will of the Palestinian people, it is adapting to this and is learning from their past mistakes in order to implement a strategy to escalate the armed struggle against the occupier.
What is happening now with the development of the armed struggle; the unifying efforts of the younger generation and the resistance in Gaza, must be analyzed as part of this new chapter that has been opened in the history of the Palestinian struggle. This movement is becoming ever more unified, it is from the masses and in many ways is driven by the younger generation of Palestinians, it cannot be defeated by small Israeli military operations and soon this will escalate, paving the way to a completely new political landscape inside all of occupied Palestine.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
This headline in the Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, only tells part of the story: “The Lions’ Den, Other Palestinian Groups are Endless Headache for Israel, PA.”
It is true that both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority are equally worried about the prospect of a widespread armed revolt in the Occupied West Bank, and that the newly formed Nablus-based brigade, the Lions’ Den, is the epicenter of this youth-led movement.
However, the growing armed resistance in the West Bank is causing more than a mere ‘headache’ for Tel Aviv and Ramallah. If this phenomenon continues to grow, it could threaten the very existence of the PA, while placing Israel before its most difficult choice since the invasion of major Palestinian West Bank cities in 2002.
Though Israeli military commanders continue to undermine the power of the newly formed group, they seem to have no clear idea regarding its roots, influence and future impact.
In a recent interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed that the Lions’ Den is a “group of 30 members”, who will eventually be reached and eliminated. “We will lay our hands on the terrorists,” he declared.
The Lions’ Den, however, is not an isolated case, but part of a larger phenomenon that includes the Nablus Brigades, the Jenin Brigades and other groups, which are located mostly in the northern West Bank.
The group, along with other armed Palestinian military units, has been active in responding to the killing of Palestinians, including children, elders, and, on October 14, even a Palestinian doctor, Abdullah Abu al-Teen, who succumbed to his wounds in Jenin. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, over 170 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza, since the beginning of the year.
The Palestinian response included the killing of two Israeli soldiers, one in Shuafat on October 8, and the other near Nablus on October 11.
Following the Shuafat attack, Israel completely sealed the Shuafat refugee camp as a form of collective punishment, similar to recent sieges on Jenin and other Palestinian towns.
Citing Israel’s Hebrew media, the Palestinian Arabic daily Al Quds reported that the Israeli military will focus its operations in the coming weeks on targeting the Lions’ Den. Thousands more Israeli occupation soldiers are likely to be deployed in the West Bank for the upcoming battle.
It is difficult to imagine that Israel would mobilize much of its army to fight 30 Palestinian fighters in Nablus. But not only Israel, the PA, too, is terribly concerned.
The Authority has tried but failed to entice the fighters by offering them a surrender ‘deal’, where they give up their arms and join the PA forces. Such deals were offered in the past to fighters belonging to Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, with mixed degrees of success.
This time around, the strategy did not work. The group rejected the PA’s overtures, compelling the Fatah-affiliated governor of Nablus, Ibrahim Ramadan, to attack the mothers of the fighters by calling them ‘deviant’ for “sending their sons to commit suicide.” Ramadan’s language, which is similar to language used by Israeli and pro-Israel individuals in their depiction of Palestinian society, highlights the massive schisms between the PA’s political discourse and those of ordinary Palestinians.
Not only is the PA losing grasp of the narrative, it is also losing whatever vestiges of control it has left in the West Bank, especially in Nablus and Jenin.
A senior Palestinian official told the Media Line that the Palestinian “street does not trust us anymore”, as they “view us as an extension of Israel.” True, but this lack of trust has been in the making for years.
The ‘Unity Intifada‘ of May 2021, however, served as a major turning point in the relationship between the PA and Palestinians. The rise of the Lions’ Den and other Palestinian armed groups are but a few manifestations of the dramatic changes underway in the West Bank.
Indeed, the West Bank is changing. A new generation that has little or no memory of the Second Intifada (2000-2005), had not experienced the Israeli invasion then but grew up under occupation and apartheid, feeding on the memories of the resistance in Jenin, Nablus and Hebron.
Judging by their political discourse, chants and symbols, this generation is fed up with the crippling and often superficial divisions of Palestinians among factions, ideologies and regions. In fact, the newly established brigades, including the Lions’ Den, are believed to be multi-factional groups bringing, for the first time, fighters from Hamas, Fatah and others into a single platform. This explains the popular enthusiasm and lack of suspicion among ordinary Palestinians of the new fighters.
For example, Saed al-Kuni, a Palestinian fighter who was recently killed by Israeli soldiers in an ambush on the outskirts of Nablus, was a member of the Lions’ Den. Some have claimed that al-Kuni was a leading member of Fatah’s Brigades, and others say he was a well-known Hamas fighter.
This lack of certainty regarding the political identity of killed fighters is fairly unique to Palestinian society, at least since the establishment of the PA in 1994.
As expected, Israel will do what it always does: amassing more occupation troops, attacking, assassinating, crushing protests and laying sieges on rebellious towns and refugee camps. What they fail to understand, at least for now, is that the growing rebellion in the West Bank is not generated by a few fighters in Nablus and a few more in Jenin, but is the outcome of a truly popular sentiment.
In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, translated by Al-Quds, an Israeli commander described what he has witnessed in Jenin during raids:
“When we enter [Jenin], armed fighters and stone throwers wait for us in every corner. Everyone takes part. You look at an old man … and you wonder, will he throw stones? And he does. Once, I saw a person who had nothing to throw [on us]. He rushed to his car, grabbed a milk carton and he threw it on us.”
Palestinians are simply fed up with the Israeli occupation and with their collaborating leadership. They are ready to put it all on the line, in fact, in Jenin and Nablus, they already have. The coming weeks and months are critical for the future of the West Bank, and, in fact, for all Palestinians.
Feature photo | Palestinians including members of the Lion’s Den militant group in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestine, attend a memorial service for Mohammed al-Azizi and Abdul Rahman Sobh on Sep. 2, 2022. | Photo published on the Lion’s Den Telegram channel.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah announced on Tuesday that Lebanon is before decisive hours with regards to the maritime demarcation deal, saying Hezbollah will await the official stances by the Lebanese President General Michel Aoun.
“Only after the agreement is signed we can say that we have a deal,” Sayyed Nasrallah said in a televised speech delivered during the celebration that was held this evening on the occasion of Prophet Mohammad’s birthday (PBUH) along with his grandson Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq (PBUH) and the Islamic Unity Week.
Lebanon received the updated proposal by US Energy Envoy Amos Hocshtein on an impending deal on the maritime dispute with the Zionist entity. The Lebanese Presidency Press Office announced on Tuesday that Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab handed over President Michel Aoun the proposal finalized by Hochstein.
“With regard to the demarcation file, we are before decisive hours, and we, as Lebanese, are waiting for the official stance to be announced by the President,” Hezbollah leader announced, adding “We will await the official stances and only after the agreement is signed we can say that we have a deal.”
Sayyed Nasrallah said ‘Israel’ is sharply divided on the deal, even within the “same parties and ministers in the government,” and that not all Israeli sides are satisfied with the agreement. “We are waiting for the official position of the enemy’s government and what’s important is what will happen tomorrow in the meeting of the Israeli cabinet. We all witnessed the contradictory statements in the Zionist entity over the past months and there is a rift there.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday that a “historic agreement” has been reached on the maritime dispute. He called a Security Cabinet meeting, followed by a general cabinet meeting for Wednesday to approve the deal, and that the deal is expected to be submitted to the Knesset for review.
“The moment the Lebanese see the delegations going to Naqoura on TV, we must remain cautious,” his eminence warned, “When the Lebanese side announces the approval of the deal, then we consider that things are done and until then we must remain vigilant.”
Sayyed Nasrallah called for attentiveness as there are those who can change their minds at every moment. He described the negotiations as difficult, “Reaching a deal was not an easy task.”
Bou Saab, Lebanon’s lead negotiator in the issue of maritime deal, said: “For Lebanon, the maritime deal has been finalized,” noting that the US mediator is waiting for the official response by Lebanon. He stressed, in remarks carried by Al-Manar, that Lebanon will have a united stance towards Hochstein’s updated proposal, noting that “no modifications have been made so far on the updated proposal.”
Hezbollah’s leader pointed that Hezbollah only cares about the extraction of oil and gas from Lebanese waters and its stance on demarcation is known. “Since the very beginning we said we stand behind the state on the issue of Lebanese demands, and I always said we want to ‘eat grapes’ and extract oil,” Hezbollah’s S.G. said.
“We have no problem when the Lebanese officials say that the agreement meets the Lebanese demands. My call is that after publishing the final text, this understanding should be approached in the spirit of national responsibility required to judge it positively or negatively away from settling accounts,” Sayyed Nasrallah indicated, hailing the cooperation spirit witnessed in Lebanon. “We are before a new experience of cooperation between state officials that was met with popular support. Lebanon will be able to achieve this great accomplishment at time when no one is concerned about its rights.”
“Where is our sea? I tell you: To us, our sea extends to Gaza, and when Palestine is liberated, we will not disagree with our Palestinian brothers on maritime borders demarcation,” his eminence said.
Sayyed Nasrallah said Hezbollah had no need to send more drones than the ones previously sent toward the Karish field on July 5, as “the objective was for the enemy to understand that we are serious.”
In this context, the Hezbollah leader hailed the resistance fighters “whose sacrifices and efforts exerted for years bore fruit within few months,” stressing that the resistance will maintain its readiness until the agreement is signed. “To resistance fighters I say: You’ll remain on your readiness, vigilance and measures until we see with our very eyes that the deal is signed, and after that is another day,” Sayyed Nasrallah said.
Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that “this is a national wealth that is not owned by a particular sect, political party or region; it belongs to the entire Lebanese people, so it must be approached with a spirit of responsibility,” and continued, “I promise you to cooperate with all the pillars of the state.” “We must benefit from the experiences of the countries that have sovereign funds,” his eminence said, adding “we must all immunize the funds that will come from the gas resources.”
Hezbollah S.G. ended up the issue of maritime borders demarcation deal by saying: Tonight, we will not issue threats. Tonight, there will only be joy and clapping.
On the internal Lebanese issue, Sayyed Nasrallah said: “On the presidential file, I have nothing new to add regarding the issue of the presidency and we call for the formation of a government.” He regretted that officials are “blowing hot and cold”” in this regard, oscillating between optimism and stagnation in the negotiations.
As for Yemen, the Hezbollah leader praised Yemenis for the huge celebrations held across the various provinces that had been plagued by eight years of war. “This people, who suffered from an eight years war and suffers from many life crises, is gathering in a scene like no other, we bow in respect.”
Turning to the Palestinian cause, Sayyed Nasrallah hailed the latest resistance might in the West Bank, saying: “What’s going on in the West Bank is percussive to the Zionist entity and all its political forces. The resistance today in West Bank needs all ways of political, media and popular solidarity. The resistance in West Bank is able to change equations, hopes are pinned on it.”
West Bank cities have witnessed a significant escalation of resistance operations lately, especially in Jenin and Nablus, at the level of shooting at the Occupation army’s checkpoints and settlers and throwing explosive and incendiary devices, in response to the Israeli crimes in occupied territories.
Sayyed Nasrallah also lauded Hamas’ decision on strengthening the relations with Syria as a courageous, wise and sound decision.
The Palestinian resistance factions of the West Bank are no longer fractured and in disarray, and the results speak for themselves
The Israeli army’s recent incursions into the cities and refugee camps of the northern occupied-West Bank are not going as smoothly as before.
The occupation army’s incursions into the city of Jenin and Jenin refugee camp in early September required the mobilization of large forces, including special units and armored vehicles – in scale, unprecedented since 2014.
On the night of 6 September, a force of about 100 vehicles carried out a raid in Jenin, supported by air with drones, and on land, by hundreds of soldiers from Israel’s elite military units.
Their task? To demolish the house of Ra’ad Hazem, who carried out the Dizengoff attack in Tel Aviv on 7 April, 2022. More than anything, this excessive military build-up over a single home demolition illustrates that the Israeli military can no longer operate in the West Bank as they did before the May 2021 ‘Sayf Al Quds’ conflagration – and its subsequent developments.
After the 6 September operation – which resulted in the death of three Israelis and wounded 14 – the occupation army launched Operation ‘Break the Waves’ in response to the rapid expansion of Palestinian resistance factions and fervor in the West Bank.
The re-emergence of resistance in the West Bank
Break the Waves’ objective, according to then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, was to “attack without borders in order to stop the [resistance] operations” – four of which were carried out in cities in occupied territories – and to destroy the infrastructure of the resistance factions in Jenin and Nablus.
Five months after the Tel Aviv attack, the situation in the West Bank remains tense and is heading toward further escalation. In the interim, three new resistance battalions have been announced in Nablus, Tulkarm and Tubas.
Between 2007 and 2021, the resistance factions, particularly Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), remained stuck in a vicious cycle. The enemy’s surgical strikes were hindering their proactive initiatives, and until 2020, their activities were limited to the formation of fighting cells that were able to carry out one or two attacks before being incapacitated.
Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian Authority (PA) security services have fully collaborated with the occupation authorities to pursue these resistance factions, for fear of having the Gaza model repeated in the West Bank.
The genesis lies in Jenin
The rejuvenation of resistance in the occupied West Bank can be attributed to the martyr Jamil al-Amouri. A prominent figure in the Jenin camp, Amouri was considered the most “wanted” by the occupation state for carrying out several shooting attacks against Israeli positions around Jenin, during the 2021 battle of Sayf al-Quds.
He effectively contributed to the formation of active military cells inside the camp, which later went on to form the nucleus of the Jenin Brigade.
In early June 2021, Amouri was assassinated, along with Lieutenant Adham Yasser Tawfiq Alawi from Nablus, and Captain Tayseer Mahmoud Othman Eissa from Jenin. The deaths of a PIJ commander along with two officers from the PA’s Military Intelligence effectively broke the ice between the PIJ on the one hand, and the Fatah movement and members of the security services in Jenin and Nablus, on the other.
This also led to a subtle change in the popular resistance factions’ perception of the PA security services, who for years have been accused of being agents of the occupation.
As political researcher Muhammad Dargham told The Cradle: “The martyrdom of Amouri with two officers from the security services removed the veil from the eyes of many supporters of the [Palestinian] Authority and the Fatah who woke up after thirteen years and found themselves guards of security coordination with Israel.”
PIJ and Fatah: setting aside differences
According to Dargham, the killing of Amouri, Alawi, and Eissa created harmony – at least in the Jenin camp – between the Al-Quds Brigades and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – the respective armed wings of the PIJ and Fatah.
Three months after Amouri’s murder, five Palestinian prisoners belonging to the PIJ movement, along with the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, managed to escape from Gilboa Prison, the most fortified of all Israeli prisons. Two of the six, Ayham Kamamji and Monadel Nafeat, managed to reach Jenin refugee camp.
By 19 September, 2021, all escapees were re-captured. However the date is also notable for the establishment of the Jenin Brigade – the first semi-organized resistance formation in the West Bank in 17 years. Importantly, while the Brigade was founded by PIJ operatives, it also consists of members of the armed wings of political rivals Hamas and Fatah.
Resistance spreads like wild fire
For many years, Israel ruled out the success of any semi-organized resistance action in the West Bank cities and refugee camps. This is due to the occupation’s adoption of a “maximum integration” policy that linked all aspects of the daily lives of Palestinians in the West Bank to Israel.
The occupation also adopted its “mowing the lawn” policy, which sought to target all resistances cells by arresting or killing its members.
These strategies were designed to send the message that any attempt to resist is doomed to failure, and the fate of those who undertake it will be life imprisonment or assassination.
However, what transpired in September 2021 was different from all Israeli estimates. The Jenin Brigade maintained its military continuity, and the attempts to storm the Jenin refugee camp became much more costly for the Israelis.
Previously, any Israeli force that invaded the camp was met with stone-throwing and firecrackers. But over the course of a year and three months, the alliance of Al-Quds Brigades and Al-Aqsa Brigades raised the bar considerably, and stands as testament to the benefits of a united armed front for the resistance.
This was noticeable about a year after the launch of the Jenin Brigade. On 24 May, 2022, clashes erupted in the area of the Prophet Joseph’s tomb, near Balata and Askar refugee camps, east of Nablus. Israeli settlers used to enter this area without any confrontation except for stone throwing.
On that day, though, the confrontations developed into an armed clash that seemed organized and with purpose. A few days later, Al-Quds Brigades issued a statement announcing the launch of the Nablus Brigade.
One month earlier, three resistance fighters from the Al-Quds Brigades were killed in a clash with the Israeli army. One of the three, Saif Abu Libdeh, from the Ain Shams camp in Tulkarem, had worked for months to establish the infrastructure for a group that would be announced six weeks after his death, under the name Tulkarem Brigade. This was followed by the formation of another battalion – the Tubas Brigade in June.
The occupation state: feeling the heat
According to the Israeli army’s Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, the occupation forces have foiled “hundreds of operations” since the beginning of the Operation Break the Wave, and carried out more than 1,500 precautionary arrests.
Indeed, the first half of this year witnessed more than 3,700 Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, during which 21 settlers were killed and 316 wounded, including 2,692 attacks with stones, 577 with Molotov cocktails, 542 with burning tires, 33 with explosive devices, 30 with fireworks, 25 with paint bottles, 14 shootings, 1 case of hit and run, 4 cases of stabbing (with 7 foiled).
However, these numbers maybe underrepresented. For instance, in one week alone (28 August to 3 September 2022), 12 soldiers and settlers were injured, and about 90 points of confrontation were observed, including one stabbing attack, 22 shooting attacks, and 15 throwing explosive devices and Molotov cocktails.
Point of no return
There is consensus among the Israeli security establishment, think-tanks, and military analysts that the situation on the ground in the West Bank has reached a point of no return. The question that worries Israel is: Is it possible to eliminate the new resistance developments – or at least keep them confined to the northern West Bank and prevent their expansion to southern cities such as Hebron and Bethlehem, or central cities such as Jerusalem and Ramallah?
This Israeli concern is justified considering that the beginning of September bore serious consequences for the Israelis. On 4 September, three Palestinians from Jenin (a father and his two sons) shot at a bus carrying Kfir unit recruits in the Jordan Valley, injuring more than seven Israeli soldiers.
Until now, the results of the investigations have not been announced, but it seems that the attack was carefully planned in terms of timing, and choice of location, where there were fewer surveillance cameras at work.
A few days later, the Israeli army aborted an attempt by a Palestinian youth from Nablus from carrying out an operation in central Tel Aviv. The police suggested that the young man “infiltrated through a hole in the wall in the Tulkarem area,” where the army deployed three infantry battalions to thwart further attempts.
There is yet another event that suggests the resistance action in the West Bank is growing. At dawn, on Thursday 8 September, members of the Jenin Brigade detonated a locally manufactured explosive device targeting a military jeep during a raid of one of the neighboring camps.
It turned out that the device was controlled remotely, which represented a major technical development for the resistance factions, whose infrastructure was destroyed at the end of the Second Intifada.
Israelis are fanning the flames
The Israeli Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv believes that the PIJ has succeeded in transforming the northern West Bank into a hotbed of resistance, as well as in smuggling weapons and money to Palestinian cities and camps.
These concerns coincide with expressed doubts over the efficacy of Israel’s “mowing the lawn” policy, which has fueled the “vicious cycle of blood,” according to Amos Harel, a military analyst writing for Haaretz newspaper.
In an article he wrote earlier this month, Harel asked whether the Israeli army is quelling the West Bank’s flames, or actually fanning them.
Avi Iskharov, an analyst in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, opined that Israel is facing a “new situation” that is not similar to the two previous intifadas of 1987 and 2000, pointing out that “there are pockets of Palestinian gunmen in Nablus and Jenin (in the northern West Bank), who clash almost every night with the army and shoot at Israeli targets.”
Sources close to the resistance brigades in the West Bank told The Cradle that “Israel’s concerns are exaggerated for use in the upcoming election campaign.”
“What we are seeing today is the result of years of [resistance] efforts. As the train has set off, returning to the starting point means acceptance of our mass killing, and this is out of the question,” says one Palestinian source.
Israel: The PA is not collaborating enough
The Israelis have sought to place the blame for their inability to eliminate the resistance brigades and to abort operations in the occupied territories squarely on the PA in Ramallah, who they feel are failing to fulfill their obligations.
Israel’s Kan channel quoted an Israeli official as saying that “the Palestinian security services should increase their activity in the cities of the West Bank to prevent further escalation.”
As for the Palestinians, the corruption-ridden PA is too weak to play a pivotal role in curbing the resistance which enjoys broad Palestinian popular support. Any further association made between the PA with the Israeli security campaigns will make it lose what is left of its flagging legitimacy.
The Hebrew Walla website quoted Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA’s channel of communication with the Israelis, as saying: “It is Israel that has weakened the [Palestinian] Authority through daily incursions into the Palestinian areas.”
“The authority cannot accept a reality in which the army storms the occupied territories every night, then we are asked to work during the day against the militants,” added Sheikh.
A dawn of a new era in the West Bank
Meanwhile, the US has been keen to help prop up the PA and help it “restore stability,” by taking measures such as “increasing the number of work permits for Palestinians” in the occupied territories, “pumping economic aid to the Authority from various sources,” and facilitating the movement of Palestinians.
US Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, who recently visited Israel and met with senior security officials, warned that “the situation in the West Bank is worse than it appears and the future of the entire PA is under threat.”
In the early hours of 20 September, PA security forces in Nablus arrested Musab Shtayyeh, a Hamas commander wanted by Israel. Later that day, clashes broke out between the PA and hundreds of Palestinians who hit the streets in protest.
Resistance factions are demanding Shtayyeh’s immediate release and are threatening to bar the PA from Nablus until this is done.
In a video addressing the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian resistance in Jenin cautioned: “we do not want to fight with you, but stay away from us. If you deal in kidnapping, we will also deal in kidnapping.”
The Authority’s unelected President Mahmoud Abbas is in a bind: he fears mutiny from within for collaborating with Israeli security, and fears punishment from Israel for not doing so.
By not adopting a conclusive direction, on a daily basis Abbas drains the PA of further legitimacy and authority, as demonstrated in Nablus today.
In terms of the prospects for Palestinian national liberation, this at least will be a welcome development, as the decline or demise of the western and Israeli-backed PA will open a wide door to revitalized armed resistance in the occupied West Bank.
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