Palestinian Resistance Responds to Zionist Terrorism

The pro-Apartheid media in Israel today is apoplectic after the brazen Palestinian resistance operation against the occupier army "that ended with one soldier kidnapped, two dead and four wounded," according to Amos Harel's piece in the pro-Apartheid daily Ha'aretz. A joint statement from Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) called the operation an "Earthquake reaction to the massacre of civilians."

The Daily Star elaborates on the motive for the Palestinian operation:

A deadly attack on an Israeli Army post near the Gaza Strip on Sunday was a message to Israel to stop killing civilians, the groups behind the assault said in a statement Sunday.

"This operation was a clear and final message to the enemy leaders: They need to keep civilians far from their hateful bullets and leave the battle between the heroes of the resistance and the [Israeli] soldiers," the joint statement said.

In the past two weeks, 14 Palestinian civilians, including a pregnant woman and young children, were killed by errant Israeli air strikes. Eight people were also killed on a Gaza beach, seven of whom belonged to a single family, by an Israeli shell.

Hamas lawmaker Musheer al-Masry hailed the pre-dawn assault, which was claimed by the ruling Hamas movement's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the radical Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the previously unknown Army of Islam group.

"We consider this operation part of the natural response to the Zionist crimes, especially after the series of killings of children, women, old men and whole families in Gaza," Masry said. "It is the right of our people to defend themselves with all the means available."

Further details on why the groups carried out the attack ran in Ha'aretz:

The armed groups who took part in the strike said the attack was in response to the recent Israeli assassination of a militant leader...

Jamal Abu Samhadana, the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, was killed in a strike on a training camp in Gaza.

The details of the sophisticated operation, undertaken by three separate Palestinian resistance groups acting in unison - "the military wing of the Hamas, Iz al-Din al-Qassam; the Popular Resistance Committees"; "and a previously unknown group called Jish al-Islam ("the Army of Islam"), apparently comprised of Fatah breakaways" - have come to light. Ha'aretz reports:

The incident began shortly before dawn, at about 5:30 A.M., when eight Palestinians crossed the border between Gaza and Israel via a tunnel that they had dug over the past several months...

After they emerged, the Palestinians split into three groups that attacked the outpost almost simultaneously. The southern strike force, consisting of two Palestinians, attacked the outpost's "pillbox" and even tried to scale it with a ladder, sparking a fire fight in which both assailants were killed. Three soldiers were wounded during this fight, one moderately and two lightly.

The tunnel was apparently very deep and almost a kilometer long, emerging into Israel about 300 meters east of border fence, just north of Kerem Shalom. Despite the army's numerous lookout posts in this area, no soldiers noticed the Palestinians emerging from the tunnel.

The second strike force wasted most of its ammunition, which included a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) and hand grenades, on an empty armored personnel carrier that had been stationed near the outpost as a decoy.

However, the northern strike force scored a major success: Under cover of a line of trees, it was able to approach a tank located about 600 meters north of the pillbox undetected and attack it with an RPG and hand grenades. The attack killed two of the four-member crew: the commander, First Lieutenant Hanan Barak, 20, of Arad, and the loader, Staff Sergeant Pavel Slutzker of Dimona. It also seriously wounded the driver and moderately wounded Shalit, the gunner, though Major General Elazar Stern, the head of the army's Personnel Directorate, later told Shalit's parents that he left the tank "on his own two feet." Apparently, none of the crew managed to return fire.

After the attack, the six assailants left alive returned to Gaza overland, rather than via the tunnel, using either a small bomb or an antitank missile to blow a hole in the border fence.

Following the brazen Palestinian resistance operation, Ha'aretz reported that, "Senior Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip went underground... The officials would not take phone calls, fearing IDF assassination attempts after Israeli government."

Apartheid Israel finds itself confused over how to respond. The Jerusalem Post quotes Olmert promising that, "From our standpoint, it's not over... No one has immunity." And Middle East Online reports that Olmert took steps to initiate an all-out attack on Gaza:

Israel tanks, troops and Apache combat helicopters stormed into southern Gaza in response to search for the missing soldier and investigate the tunnel used by the attackers.

Public radio reported that further forces were massing on the border.

"This attack was carried out and spearheaded by senior members of the Hamas and authorized by the party's leadership," an army spokesman told AFP.

"The IDF (Israel Defence Force) holds the Palestinian Authority and democratically elected Hamas government responsible for the attack and the fate of the missing soldier."

Yet no attack on Gaza has commenced. Others weighed in, too.

"I recommended the assassination of Hamas leaders," Likud MK Silvan Shalom said. And Binyamin Netanyahu urged a quick and forceful response: "I would not, at all costs, wait for the act because the soldier might never come home. The soldier can be freed. We need an aggressive approach and not the fawning of the government."

Popular pro-genocide MK Avigdor Lieberman called on Monday for a massive military retaliation against the Palestinians, "and said Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas should be kidnapped by the army and hustled across the border into Israel."

He continued:

"We need to tell Haniyeh and the Hamas leaders that after a Qassam rocket barrage on Sderot, we will turn their homes into soccer fields. We won't harm innocent people but will give them half an hour to leave [their homes]," Lieberman said.

But while Lieberman's pompous bluster may garner him votes from Apartheid Israel's far-right lunatic fringe, it's unlikely to play well elsewhere. While Lieberman may not want to admit it, this attack demonstrates that Apartheid Israel's terrorist actions - the bulldozing of homes, the massacre of civilians, and the assassination of political leaders - come at a price that the resistance can and will extract.

Less than a week after the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade declared war on Apartheid Israel, the Jerusalem Post reports that the group announced its ability "to manufacture and develop at least 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons."

"The group said its members would not hesitate to add the new weapons to Kassam rockets that are being fired at Israeli communities almost every day. It also threatened to use the weapons against IDF soldiers if Israel carried out its threats to invade the Gaza Strip."

We should most certainly be wary of such an announcement reported by only one source, but, if true, it puts yet another arrow in the quiver of the Palestinian resistance in their liberation struggle against Apartheid Israel.

Because the Zionists' in Apartheid Israel live in fear of their own shadows and demand constant protection from the Apartheid nanny-state, the balance of forces has changed markedly over the last months. Palestinians continue to suffer the most severe indignities on the planet, but, because its Resistance now has the capacity to turn Zionist land thieves into fear-filled bed-wetters, the Apartheid state now finds itself impotent to act without fearing the consequences for doing so.