Today’s Israel is built over the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian villages which were destroyed by Zionist militias during Israel’s formation in 1948, said professor and historian Ilan Pappé. He emphasized that the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their lands and homes was nothing but ethnic cleansing carried out by Israeli armed forces.

Professor Pappé was speaking during an online event called “75 years of Nakba, 75 years of people’s resistance,” organized by the International People’s Assembly (IPA) on Wednesday, May 10, ahead of the Palestinian Nakba Day, which is commemorated annually on May 15.

Thousands of Palestinians were killed, and hundreds of thousands (according to some estimates around 750,000 to 800,000) were forcefully expelled by Israeli forces from their lands and villages inside the historic Palestine during the months leading up to Israel’s creation in 1948. Each year, Palestinians commemorate their forceful expulsion and dispossession as the Nakba, or the “great catastrophe” in Arabic.

Apart from Professor Pappé, Bassam al-Salhi, Secretary General of the Palestinian People’s Party and a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, and Mehdi Salhi from the Belgium Workers Party also spoke during the event moderated by Georgia Gusciglio of INTAL Belgium.

The occupation is unleashing Nakba every day 

All the speakers underlined the fact that Nakba was not a one-time event and that Palestinians continue to face Israeli oppression, atrocities, discrimination, killings, and forceful displacement on a daily basis.

Pappé pointed out that contrary to common understanding, even in 1948, the Nakba was not a brief event but, as now established by professional historians, went on for months between November 1947 and December 1948. He claimed that during these months, more than half of all Palestinian villages in historical Palestine were demolished (530 villages), and nearly half of the Palestinian population was forced to become refugees.

Pappé claimed that with the collaboration of the colonial powers at the time, Zionists were able to undertake this ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in order to establish the “facts on the ground” to legitimize their occupation of the land. He categorically refuted Israeli claims that  Palestinians were asked to leave their homes by the Arab armies, who were, in fact, trying to defend the Palestinian land from Israeli aggression.

Now, “the only possible way of rectifying the past evil is by respecting Palestinian refugees’ right to return and by the establishment of a state all over the historical Palestine based on the principles of democracy, equality and social justice built through the process of restitutive justice which compensates the people who have lost land, careers, and lives,” Pappé emphasized.

Palestinian resistance has never ceased 

Agreeing with Pappé, Bassam Salhi said that Palestinians “continue to fight against the apartheid Zionist system on a day-to-day basis and a third intifada is already building up” in the occupied territories. However, he also emphasized the need to promote international solidarity movements such as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) to build greater popular pressure on the occupation.

Mariam Barghouti, who was unable to attend the event, sent her views in writing, which were read by Gusciglio. She reiterated that the Nakba neither started nor ended on May 15, 1948. The date is remembered because, on this day, the massacre and bloodbath of Palestinians were institutionalized by the creation of Israel. She pointed out that Israel still continues to massacre Palestinians because the world community is silent and the Palestinians are termed as “terrorists.”

Noting that it has been a year since senior Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces and no one has been held guilty for the crime yet, and that Gaza is being bombed again—as in the last several years with scores of innocent civilians killed—Barghouti questioned the logic of peace as propagated by the West, which asks Palestinians to make peace with the entity that has killed and massacred their family members.

Mehdi Salihi spoke on the growing strength of Palestinian solidarity movements in Europe. He highlighted that due to growing engagements with larger working-class sections across Europe, a new solidarity with Palestinians is emerging. He cited examples of how public campaigns have led to city councils in Barcelona in Spain and Liege in Belgium, among others, taking proactive positions in support of Palestine and against Israeli apartheid.

All speakers noted the need to expand movements like BDS, which are facing greater challenges due to the weaponization of anti-Semitism as well as anti-BDS legislation in several countries. They also acknowledged the growing significance of anti-apartheid committees across the globe.

Source: Peoples Dispatch

On May 2, Palestinian resistance leader, rights activist, and prisoner Khader Adnan died at the age of 45 after an 87-day hunger strike. He leaves behind his spouse Randa Adnan and nine children, who are now without their father. Adnan came to international prominence as a symbol of Palestinian human rights due to his continued hunger strikes against the inhumane practice of administrative detention common throughout Israel-occupied Palestine. 

The administrative detention procedure allows Israel to detain people for renewable periods of 6 months without filing charges or a trial. The IDF and other Israeli security forces use the procedure to indefinitely detain Palestinians for “activities that threaten regional security.” 

The IDF arrested Adnan for the 12th time on February 5. This was far from Adnan’s first hunger strike, but it would tragically be his last. Unfortunately, the IDF’s use of administrative detention to repress Palestinian life came to define Adnan’s own life. 

For the past 20 years, the IDF has constantly harassed and arrested Adnan for alleged political activity with the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. The Jihad Movement is a militant organization dedicated to freeing Palestine from Israel’s apartheid clutches.  From all accounts, Adnan stopped his involvement with the Jihad Movement in 2005 after serving as their spokesperson for five years. 

The IDF and the Palestinian National Authority arrested Adnan five times previously. These detentions and corresponding hunger strikes were relatively short compared to the stint in 2005 and those that followed. The IDF held Adnan for 15 months without charge in 2005. In response, Adnan held a 12-day hunger strike in support of all Palestinian prisoners. This was the beginning of his more prominent hunger strikes against Israeli apartheid. 

In 2011, the IDF arrested Adnan again, even though it was 100% confirmed that Adnan was no longer the Jihad Movement spokesperson. The IDF raided Adnan’s home in the middle of the night and arrested his entire family, including Randa Adnan, who was pregnant, and their young children. One cannot help but be reminded of the Chicago Police Department’s midnight raid that resulted in the execution of Fred Hampton and injury to Akua Njeri, who was pregnant. 

While detained in 2011, IDF soldiers beat Adnan, deprived him of sleep, and made sexual-ladened threats against Randa Adnan. When Randa was finally allowed to visit him in 2012, she found him starved, dirty, and shackled to a hospital bed after a 50-day hunger strike. 

This is the true face of the enemy that the Palestinian people face every day. This is the real Israel – sexism, racism, brutality. The interrogation itself lasted 18 days. At the time of Adnan’s 2011 detention, Israel held over 300 Palestinians in administrative detention, including 21 members of the Palestinian legislative body. 

Through all this, Adnan was never formally charged or tried. Safe to say, even if Adnan organized militant resistance against Israeli forces, he would have been justified. 

Adnan was detained again in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2021 — every time without charge or trial. And every time, Adnan refused to take the repression quietly. He never stopped fighting for the liberation of all Palestinian people. Hunger strike after hunger strike, many lasting a month or more, Adnan persisted in his cause to stand in solidarity with all political prisoners and demanded an end to Israeli apartheid. 

Mainstream media may call Adnan a terrorist or a dangerous criminal even as he no longer walks this earth. However, the Palestinian people know the truth. Anti-Zionists know the truth. We all know the truth. Adnan was neither a criminal nor a terrorist. He was a liberation fighter. He is now a martyr for the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation. That is how we will remember Khader Adnan. 

Khader Adnan presente! Down with Israel! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

Hundreds of people came to New York City’s Times Square on April 14 to commemorate Al-Quds Day. Rallies were held that day in dozens of cities around the world, including eight in the United States.

Also known as Jerusalem, Al-Quds is the eternal capital of Palestine. The holy city has been a special target of the Israeli apartheid regime that occupies Palestine. Homes of Palestinians are torn down to make way for settlers, many of whom were born in the United States.

A call to mark Al-Quds Day in solidarity with Palestinians was made in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. Since then rallies and demonstrations have been held worldwide on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

This year, even more than usual, Israeli cops and troops have viciously attacked worshippers in Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. Tear gas was repeatedly used against Palestinians who were praying.

This brutality was the backdrop for the Times Square rally. It was organized and led by the Muslim Congress and the Al Quds Day Committee. Speakers, including a rabbi, attacked the Zionist regime. Also speaking were representatives from Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Within Our Lifetime; the ANSWER Coalition; and the International Action Center.

Speaking for Struggle-La Lucha newspaper and the Socialist Unity Party, Steve Millies said that “working and poor people in the United States have no interest in supporting the apartheid regime that occupies Palestine. While Zionist police attack worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, New York City cops just murdered a 78-year-old Black man in Brooklyn.

“The racist state of Israel wouldn’t even exist without the $158 billion it’s gotten from the U.S. government,” said Millies, a retired railroad worker and union member. “Meanwhile 30 million people in the U.S. have had their food stamps cut.

“We need an Intifada right here against rising rents, skyrocketing food prices and trigger-happy cops! Not billions to oppress the Palestinian people.

“Two million poor people are locked-up in prisons from coast-to-coast. All the Trumps and banksters should be jailed instead. The Zionist state and its ghetto walls are a prison for the Palestinian people.

“We need jobs and peace. Not a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget. The Zionist regime is a police force that Wall Street and Big Oil uses to preserve their empire.

“A little more than 40 years ago, if you looked in a Rand McNally Atlas, it would show a country in Southern Africa that they called ‘Rhodesia.’ The people of Zimbabwe―through years of armed struggle―wiped that racist obscenity off the map.

“The people of Palestine will wipe the Zionist state off the map. Long live Palestine!” Millies concluded.

Long live Palestine! Al-Quds is the eternal capital of Palestine!

In dozens of cities across the United States, people took to the streets on April 8 to stand with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and say, “Hands off Al-Aqsa!” They expressed outrage at the Zionist occupation police invading Al-Aqsa Mosque in Al Quds (Jerusalem) and attacking people at prayer during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. While the Biden regime has criticized the openly fascist regime now running the occupation regime in Palestine, it has not cut one dime from the massive flow of arms and money to the Zionist colonial project. In New York City, hundreds rallied and marched in Times Square, above.

The popular outrage and response from the Resistance factions to the Israeli assaults on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque have again been distorted by Western media, in an attempt to try and pin the blame on the response. The framing of what occurred at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is vital, as this is how the Zionist entity and its Western backers seek to begin their pro-“Israel” narrative.

Before we get into what happened in Al-Aqsa Mosque, perhaps the best way to approach this for a Western audience is to imagine the scenario as follows: A militarized force stormed the Vatican, during Easter, with the aim of purging Christian worshippers so that radicals from another faith background could storm the site under the protection of armed police forces. The militarized force broke through the doors of one of the churches, where some younger Christians had gathered fireworks to attempt to keep the militarized force out. The armed men then entered the church, fired gas and stun grenades, and caused a small fire to break out before beating Christian worshippers who were already on the ground and helpless. This militarized force beat women, guards at the Vatican, and even elderly men, then proceeded to return to the Vatican later to assault Christian worshippers during prayer.

The situation above would not take a genius in the West to figure out who was in the wrong. It would also be ridiculous to suggest that some young Christians who used fireworks to keep their attackers out were the real instigators, and the situation would never be presented as a “clash”. Yet, when it comes to the Western media’s coverage of anything involving “Israel”, somehow, all professionalism, journalistic integrity, and consideration for the facts simply go out of the window. In Ramadan of 2021, in the lead-up to the Israeli war of May, the Western media distorted the facts then too.

In fact, it would be fair to say that if such an assault on worshippers at a Holy Site was to take place during a religious holiday, there would not be any issues for Western media to at least use accurate language to frame the event.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is in the heart of every Muslim and all Palestinians, and it has become a symbol of Arab and Islamic civilization, not to mention it being the third Holiest site in Islam. This is the location where Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) ascended to the heavens, to where the first Muslims directed their prayer. When the site is attacked by a regime, which, under international law, maintains an illegal occupation over the eastern part of Al-Quds, where the site is located, it provokes some of the most intense emotional reactions possible.

Legally, the Zionist entity has no right to any of the occupied eastern part of Al-Quds, which they “annexed,” a decision that was rejected by the international community. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan also holds custodianship over the Holy sites in the Old City of occupied Al-Quds, which gives it the right to maintain the security situation within Al-Aqsa compound itself. The status quo at the site is that there are special tourist hours, where anyone can enter the compound, but the site is for Muslim worship alone, so all talk from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about his intention to maintain the status quo are sheer lies. The aim of the Israeli regime is to allow for special hours where extremist Israeli settlers will be escorted inside the compound and are given the ability to freely worship and perform provocative acts whilst this occurs… this is a change to the status quo.

The act of extremist religious settlers praying inside Al-Aqsa compound is used as a sticking point in Zionist propaganda, which they use as a pretext to argue that since the site is also Holy in Judaism, they should be able to pray there. The reality is something very different however, this is not about a prayer; it is about asserting Israeli sovereignty over the area, and for the “Temple Mount” movement that finances the settler incursion movement, they openly seek to build what they call the “Third Temple,” meaning that they want to destroy Al-Aqsa and build a synagogue on top of it. There is a split in the Jewish religious traditions on the issue of whether a Jew should even enter the site, which many Jewish religious authorities rule as forbidden. It is believed by many Jews that the remains of what they believe to have been a synagogue at the site only remain at the “Western Wall” area. This site was once of insignificance except for a small number of Jews who would pray there on religious holidays. In the 1920s, the Zionist movement began focusing its efforts on seizing this area, which caused a number of revolts from the Palestinians, culminating in the largest in 1929, sparked by fears that the Zionist movement would go further and was threatening to lay claim to Al-Aqsa.

Today the issue is clear, this extremist group of settler organizations, which receive funding from registered charitable organizations in the West, most prominently in the United States, seek the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as their ultimate goal. On top of this, the Zionist entity continues to assault, kill, arrest, and harass worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Just a week ago, a man from Al-Naqab was shot dead near one of the gates to the compound. Inside “Israel’s” current coalition, holding ministerial positions, are West Bank settlers like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have openly participated in storming Al-Aqsa with the settler groups. So these extremists are not fringe, they are in the mainstream.

When the initial response to these assaults on worshippers, which resulted in around 400 injured or arrested, or both, the Western media went on to report on the issue of rocket fire from Gaza as a “border exchange.” This is also a key sticking point in Zionist propaganda, which frames exchanges of fire between the resistance in Gaza and “Israel” as occurring across a “border” when no such border exists. Along with “Tel Aviv” never having officially declared its borders, Gaza is an occupied territory, it is not a state. There are separation fences and walls built by the Zionist regime to divide the two pieces of land from each other. Therefore, there is nothing that can be legally claimed as a border. This language is used, despite “Israel” not officially declaring this as a border, because it gives them the excuse to pretend that they have the legal right to defend an internationally recognized boundary. Western media, by using this term, are actively playing into Israeli propaganda.

The starting point, when looking at the current escalation over the assault on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, has to be rooted in an understanding of how serious such an attack is. When the West protects “Israel’s” so-called “right to defend itself” but then condemns the people of the region for reacting to an Islamaphobic attack on a Holy site during Ramadan, which is supposed to be under the custodianship of an Arab nation, there is a double-standard at play. The Palestinian people have a right to defend themselves, they have a right to defend their national sanctities, and the Muslim and Arab World has the right to protect its Holy sites.

Source: Al Mayadeen

Bezalel Smotrich is one of the main pillars of the current Israeli government. Although generally described as the finance minister, his work is not confined to curbing inflation.

His broad portfolio gives him partial responsibility for the defense ministry and a major role in administering Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A far-right extremist, Smotrich has used his new platform to incite violence. Just days after Israeli settlers carried out a pogrom in Huwwara – killing one Palestinian and inflicting huge destruction on homes, businesses, and vehicles – Smotrich called for that West Bank village to be “wiped out” by the Israeli state.

That racist statement was denounced internationally. Ned Price, spokesperson for the US State Department, called it “irresponsible” and “repugnant.”

Smotrich is not the only member of the Israeli government who supported the crimes by settlers in Huwwara.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, was initially silent after the pogrom. Yet it did not take long before his admiration for the perpetrators became clear.

Ben-Gvir denounced the detention of two settlers accused of taking part in the pogrom.

Members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, from Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party have openly applauded the pogrom.

One such lawmaker Zvika Fogel said, “A closed, burnt Huwwara – that’s what I want to see.”

Limor Son Har-Melech, another Jewish Power elected representative, called the pogrom “the righteous cry of hundreds of Samaria residents.” Israel refers to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria.

The Huwwara pogrom took place during a time of mass protests by Israelis against Benjamin Netanyahu and the government he leads, which has declared a war of sorts on the state’s high court.

An estimated 250,000 people took to the streets in one day of protest this month, part of an ongoing series of demonstrations.

Among those joining the protests have been Yair Lapid, the former prime minister, and Benny Gantz, the former defense minister. Gantz, then heading Israel’s military, oversaw a 2014 attack on Gaza that – in his own words – caused so much destruction that parts of the territory were “returned to the stone ages.”

Lapid, Gantz, and other politicians now in opposition are seeking to isolate Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. The opposition has portrayed the violence in Huwwara as an example of the extreme racism that is supposedly at odds with its liberal values.

Abnormal?

From the Palestinian perspective, the Huwwara pogrom is not something abnormal. Rather, it is the logical result of the Zionist colonial project in Palestine.

Israeli settlers – colonizers would arguably be a more accurate word – are not an outlaw group in Israel. They are a strategic tool in the implementation of policies pursued by successive Israeli governments.

The objectives of those policies have been to steal land and to expel Palestinians.

What is new is that the most hardline colonizers now occupy a position of immense power. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are both colonizers themselves, living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

The settlers do not act alone. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, has pointed to how settlers benefit from cooperation. “The settlers carry out the attack, the military secures it, the politicians back it.”

B’Tselem has rejected the notion that the Israeli state has somehow lost control. “This is exactly what Israeli control looks like,” the group stated, adding that “the Huwwara pogrom was an extreme manifestation of a longstanding Israeli policy.”

Violence is necessary to achieve the state’s aim of emptying Palestine of its Indigenous population so that it may be replaced by foreign settlers.

Founded on massacres

Settlers often do not represent official institutions.

They are, therefore, not confined by rules. They are unrestrained in committing crimes against Palestinians.

The Huwwara pogrom is eerily reminiscent of the violence which occurred in the period leading to Israel’s establishment in 1948.

A whole series of massacres were carried by Zionist forces out around that time. The most infamous was the massacre at Deir Yassin, a village in the Jerusalem area.

The April 1948 bloodbath at Deir Yassin placed terror in the hearts of civilians. It was a significant factor in the Nakba, the huge displacement of Palestinians.

Israel is a state founded on massacres.

The current Israeli political dispute is between two camps.

One camp – the hardline settlers epitomized by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich – clearly and explicitly expresses the truth of the Zionist colonial project. The other camp also believes in the same strategy of relentless colonial violence against Palestinians but paints itself with a coating of liberal values.

That coating makes the second camp preferable for Western governments.

Israel’s most prominent “liberals” of the past few decades – Benny Gantz, Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni – were all involved in killing Palestinian civilians, collective punishment, the construction, and expansion of settlements and other efforts to deny basic rights to Palestinians when they were in power.

Jonathan Ofir, a trenchant anti-Zionist commentator, has put it well: “Israelis and everyone else are right to be shocked by the explicit genocidal nature of Smotrich’s words. But the righteous, liberal and indignant Israelis should take a good look in the mirror, to see how much of Smotrich’s fascistic vein lives in them.”

For more than a year now, there has been a noticeable uptick in Israeli violence in the West Bank. The formation of a new and overtly racist Israeli government, which clearly supports the settlers and encourages more violence against Palestinians, has helped create a certain atmosphere.

That atmosphere is ripe for more depravity on the part of settlers. Nobody would be surprised if the Huwwara pogrom is followed by similar acts of aggression by settlers, who now have greater access to government and feel stronger politically than before.

But there is another story to be told. It is the story of Palestinians determined to prevent a new Nakba.

The past seven decades have taught Palestinians that the price of resistance is much lower than the price of fear or the price of fleeing.

There has been a noticeable upsurge in resistance activities by Palestinians in recent times. Palestinians are constantly confronting Israel’s forces of occupation.

The coming months and years will undoubtedly be painful. We are witnessing an increase in the level of terror practiced by the Israeli colonizers.

But this period also carries many opportunities for a new phase in the Palestinian struggle against the colonizers.

Ahmed Abu Artema is a Palestinian writer, activist and refugee from Ramle.

Source: Electronic Intifada

Continuing their murderous spree in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli occupation forces killed three more Palestinians early on Thursday, March 9, in the town of Jaba near Jenin in the West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

According to reports, the occupation forces stormed Jaba in scores of vehicles and raided various Palestinian houses in the locality. During their raid, they fired at a car standing near the entrance of the town, killing all its occupants.

The three persons killed were identified as Ismail Fakhoury (26), Nayef Malayshah (25), and Ahmad Fashafsha (22).

Israeli occupation forces also arrested one Palestinian from the town.

Meanwhile, also on Thursday, 14-year-old Waleed Nassar succumbed to the injuries he had suffered during a raid by the Israeli forces at the Jenin refugee camp on Tuesday. His death raised the total number of Palestinians killed as a consequence of Tuesday’s raid to seven.

Six Palestinians were killed and 26 others were wounded on Tuesday after they resisted Israeli occupation forces who stormed the camp and reportedly fired a missile at one Palestinian home.

Israeli forces have claimed that the seven people killed on Tuesday included the individual who had killed two Israeli settlers last week in Huwara, near Nablus.

Palestinians in the West Bank observed a day of strike against the killings in Jenin on Tuesday. Thousands took part in the funeral procession of those killed.

Angry Palestinians briefly refused to bury the bodies of some of those killed in the Jenin raids, which led to clashes with the security forces. There were several reports of illegal Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Wednesday.

With these deaths, the total number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli security forces since the beginning of the year has reached 78, including 14 children. Israel’s extremist government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to heed to calls for de-escalation issued by the UN and several other countries.

Reacting to the Israeli violence, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, chief of the Arab League, called on the UN Security Council to adopt a fresh resolution as per chapter VII of the UN charter to provide protection to Palestinians against continued Israeli aggression.

Source: Peoples Dispatch.

Rebuild Huwarra

Funds will go to help families in Huwarra recover from the injuries they suffered to their lands, properties, and health as a result of the Zionist settler and army pogrom against Huwarra, starting on Feb 26, 2023, and the Zionist attacks on the town thereafter. Though the town has been under constant attack, this latest pogrom left over 75 homes and hundreds of cars burned. Zionist colonizers also looted businesses in Huwarra, as they were given free rein over the town, while the Zionist army imposed an order of 24-hour home confinement “curfew” on the Palestinian townspeople.

Huwarra is sandwiched between the two largest Zionist colonies and sits near the most violent zionist colony of “Yitzhar.” Huwarra is further suffocated by two major zionist torture “checkpoints” where Palestinians are routinely murdered. In between these two main “checkpoints,” the Zionist entity has maintained an unofficial “flying” checkpoint which has been manned for more than 75% of the time since 1967.

At least 10 Palestinians were martyred and 100, including several in critical condition, have so far been injured in confrontations that erupted between Palestinian Resistance fighters and Israeli occupation forces after the latter stormed the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday morning.

Among the martyrs are one child and two elderly Palestinians. The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the martyrs as 72-year-old Adnan Sabaa Baara, 61-year-old Abd Al-Hadi Abd Al-Aziz Ashqar, Muhammad Khaled Anbousi, 25, Tamer Nimer Ahmed Minawi, 33, Musab Munir Muhammad Awais, 26, Hussam Bassam Islim, 24, Muhammad Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Ghani, 23, Walid Riyad Hussein Dakhil, 23, Muhammad Shaaban, 16, and Jassir Jamil Qan’ir, 23.

Israeli occupation forces, in huge numbers, stormed the outskirts of the Old City in Nablus and surrounded a house amid heavy gunfire. During the confrontations, Israeli occupation forces fired live bullets and sound and gas bombs.

The occupation brought in large military reinforcements from the Hawara military checkpoint. Palestinians circulated footage of occupation vehicles storming the eastern market, while many residents were inside the place.

The occupation forces fired an anti-tank missile at the besieged house causing a violent explosion and columns of smoke rose from the place.

Palestinian residents also tried to obstruct the occupation forces’ storming of the City and confronted them with stones and empty bottles. In turn, the Israeli occupation forces fired live bullets and tear gas canisters between residential neighborhoods.

Local media reported that Facebook deleted the account of Husam Isleem, a Resistance fighter who was located in the besieged house, as per a circulated recording in his voice, before he was killed by Israeli occupation forces.

Ahmed Jibril, Director of Ambulance and Emergency at the Red Crescent in Nablus, confirmed that medical crews transferred to hospitals a number of injuries by live bullets, including a critical injury in the head, and treated dozens of suffocation cases.

Jibril indicated that Israeli occupation forces are still preventing medical crews from reaching the besieged area in the Old City to treat and transfer the injuries.

On its part, the National Action Factions called through mosque loudspeakers in Nablus to take to the streets to lift the siege on the house and confront the occupation forces.

Following the massacre, the military spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida said the Resistance in Gaza is watching the Israeli occupation’s escalating crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, warning that its patience is running out.

Source: Al Mayadeen English

Al-Awda NY calls on all individuals and organizations to stand with the Palestinian liberation struggle and to publicly condemn the massacre committed in the Jenin refugee camp on the morning of Thursday, January 26. We denounce the normalization by the international community of the ongoing subjugation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Zionist regime, and affirm the right and necessity of Palestinian resistance — a right enshrined by law and custom for colonized and subjugated people. We further demand that the international community and the U.S. government immediately decriminalize and facilitate support to Palestinians to protect themselves against Zionist colonization and crimes. Additionally, Al-Awda NY calls for the criminalization of U.S. citizens participating in the colonization of Palestine and contributing to Zionists’ crimes against humanity and war crimes against Palestinians, and an immediate prohibition on any future material support for these crimes. We, Al-Awda NY, will not forget the role of President Biden, the U.S. Congress, and all those who facilitate the endless flow of arms and financial support to the Zionist murder machine. We demand an immediate end to the supply of arms and money by the U.S. government to the Zionist regime without delay or qualification.

Al-Awda NY mourns the nine martyrs of Jenin refugee camp following the Zionist massacre committed the morning of January 26: Saeb Azriqi, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade fighter Izzuddin Salahat, Abdullah al-Ghoul, Waseem Jaas, the elderly woman Majda Obeid, Mu’tasim Abul-Hasan, Mohamed Soboh, and brothers Mohamed and Nour Ghoneim. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported an additional twenty Palestinians were wounded with live ammunition in the Zionist massacre; four among the injured are in critical condition. The massacre came less than 24 hours after two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and al-Quds/Jerusalem, including the 20-year-old Aref Lahlouh, who was a resident of Jenin camp. At least 30 Palestinians have risen to martyrdom in January, 2023 alone a precipitous intensification of violence by the new, ultra-fascist Zionist regime.

We condemn the massacre of another three Palestinians today, Friday January 27, 2023, murdered by an ‘israeli settler’ and stress again the demand that all states must stop the flow of Zionist settler colonizers and war criminals from their territory into Palestine.

On Thursday January 26, Zionist military jeeps and bulldozers operated by the Zionist forces entered the camp, destroying everything in their path. As they did at Sabra and Shatila, these murderers closed off all of the entrances and exits of the camp, stopping anyone from fleeing. Mohammed Abed, a local journalist, reported that the Zionist forces also “completely destroyed and ransacked” the Jenin camp’s community center, used by residents for community gatherings, funerals, and other events. According to a statement by the Jenin Freedom Theatre, a monument to the martyr Dawood Zubaidi was also destroyed. The Freedom Theatre’s statement further stressed that Palestinian youth in the camp have once again been traumatized, their mental health further violated, by the massacre and destruction witnessed on Thursday. The news agency Wafa reported that seven of the wounded were heroic youths shot while attempting to defend the Jenin camp from the Zionist forces.

During the massacre, Zionist forces shot at ambulances and blocked their passage to stop the evacuation of the wounded. Minister of Health Mai Al-Kaileh reported that Zionist forces fired tear gas at the pediatric unit of Jenin Hospital, causing suffocation cases from gas inhalation at the hospital, including among mothers and children. The Health Ministry announced Thursday: “All of the injuries that reached hospitals from Jenin camp were in the head and chest, meaning that the shots were intended to kill.”

Al-Awda NY honors the resistance fighters in Jenin. The Jenin Brigade made the following statement: “Our fighters in the Jenin Brigade and our resistant people confronted the occupation forces and its special forces units on more than one axis (the neighborhood of Al-Hawashin, Jouret Al-Dahab and Al-Saha) from the first moment, and a fierce battle took place, in which our fighters used explosive devices, guided bombs, and bullets … [leading] to certain injuries among the occupation forces. 6 military jeeps and a truck carrying the special forces were damaged.” (We thank the Resistance News Network for their tireless efforts to bring news from on the ground and for their translation work).

After the massacre, thousands of mourners gathered to bear the bodies of the nine martyrs from the Jenin Hospital, bringing them to cemeteries in the Jenin camp and the towns of Burqin, Yamun. We are humbled by the calls of funeral attendees for continued resistance to the genocidal Zionist project. Militant operations and protests have erupted across the West Bank in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Qalqilya, and al-Khalil in response to the massacre at Jenin camp. A tenth martyr, 22-year-old Youssef Yahya Muhaisen, was murdered by Zionist forces during a protest in al-Ram, near occupied al-Quds/Jerusalem. A general strike has been announced across the West Bank.

Al-Nakba has intensified in recent weeks under the leadership of criminals such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, yet the Zionist colony’s genocidal barbarism has never ceased. We reject liberals’ framing of the current colonial administration as an aberration, as a threat to “democracy.” No democracy can exist in a colony. Palestinians have been resisting Zionist colonization for over 75 years, and the Thursday morning massacre at Jenin camp is part of the decades-long Zionist effort to suppress a colonized people’s resistance; a resistance that has never died and can never be killed — so long as olive trees are planted by Fellahin, as stones are thrown by the youth of Gaza, as the Palestinian flag is raised against all odds, as rifles are shouldered by our courageous fighters.