Islamic Resistance Vs Zionist Invaders

Empowering Weak & Oppressed

Ayman Ahmed

Dhu al-Qa'dah 24, 1445 2024-06-01

Main Stories

by Ayman Ahmed (Main Stories, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 4, Dhu al-Qa'dah, 1445)

Even as the world expresses horror at Israel’s genocide in Gaza, people also marvel at the tenacity of the Islamic resistance. For eight months, Palestinians have faced the most ruthless military machine in the region. Western regimes led by the US are fully backing Israel’s murderous onslaught. Thus, the Islamic resistance is not only fighting the zionist invaders but also their western backers.

Facing enormous odds in manpower and material, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters have shocked the zionists by resisting so tenaciously and carrying out daring operations against them. The first shock was delivered on October 7, 2023 that deflated the zionists’ arrogance. Using hand gliders, fighters from Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades flew into ‘Israel’ and launched their operations against heavily-fortified military bases.

The operation was both daring and imaginative. Al-Qassam Brigade fighters first disabled Israel’s hi-tech surveillance towers before moving on to the military bases. This was a clash of lightly-armed but highly motivated Islamic fighters confronting heavily-armed zionist troops. In the very first encounter, Imaan (faith-commitment) proved far stronger than weapons.

The Islamic fighters also capture hundreds of Israeli prisoners—military as well as civilians—and took them to Gaza. This was the biggest haul of Israeli prisoners ever captured by Palestinians. It was even larger than what any Arab regime’s army has ever been able to accomplish.

The shock to zionists was so great that for several hours after Hamas launched its operation, the Israeli cabinet did not hold a meeting to discuss the crisis. It was the US Army Central Command in Amman, Jordan that convened a meeting to take charge of the situation and comfort the shell-shocked zionists.

To understand the scale of disparity between Gaza’s Islamic defenders and the zionist aggressors, consider this. Zionist Israel possesses the most lethal weapons the American arsenal can provide: F-35, F-16 and F-15 planes. They can carry 2000-lb pounds. The zionists never tire of telling the world that they have the most ‘moral army’ in the world, yet they have felt no compunction in dropping bombs on apartment buildings occupied only by civilians.

Hospitals, clinics, schools, universities, bakeries and warehouses have all been bombed and destroyed. There is not a single school or university left standing in Gaza. And only three hospitals out of a total of 36 are partially functioning.

Healthcare workers have also been targeted. By the beginning of April, more than 700 healthcare professionals had been killed in Israeli assaults, the Guardian newspaper of London reported, quoting UN and Gaza Health Ministry officials. In the two-month period since then, this number has increased.

Dr. Adnan Al Bursh, 50, the head of the orthopaedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, died on April 19, 2024 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank. His body has not yet been released by Israeli authorities but the UN human rights body said, before his death he had reportedly been beaten in prison, with his body showing signs of torture.

Dr. Al Bursh was kidnapped along with other doctors and medical personnel by Israeli forces on December 18, 2023 from Al Awda Hospital in North Gaza. At the time of his kidnapping, he was generally in good health and was performing his duties normally.

The zionists have deliberately targeted Gaza’s civilian population. The Palestinian death count is horrendous; it now exceeds 35,000; the actual toll is much higher since not all deaths are reported to hospitals. At least 15,000 children are among those murdered by Israeli forces. Another 8,000 children are missing and almost certainly dead.

What has been Israel’s declared war aim? To destroy Hamas, release Israeli prisoners and empty Gaza of all the Palestinians. Its genocidal policy of inflicting death and destruction on the Palestinian population was meant to turn them against Hamas. This has not happened.

The people of Gaza have rallied behind Hamas for its valiant resistance that has brought pride to their cause. It has also been brought to the forefront of global issues from which Israel had tried to banish it. The so-called normalization process that the treacherous Arab regimes had embarked upon, midwifed by the US, has also been stopped in its tracks.

Instead, the steadfastness of the resistance front has exposed deep divisions in the Israeli society (see also here).

The massive student protest movements and encampments that have sprung up at university campuses across the world testify to the fact that Palestine is now the number one issue globally.

So, the question that must be asked is: what gives Hamas the strength to continue in the face such enormous odds? The simple answer is: Imaan (faith-commitment).

Unlike Israeli soldiers, Hamas fighters are not afraid to die. In fact, they willingly court martyrdom, firm in the belief that a great reward awaits them in the hereafter. Such people can never be defeated.

The hundreds of miles of elaborate underground tunnels have also contributed to Hamas’ success in resisting the invading army. Israeli warplanes and bombs are not effective against these tunnels that are very deep and heavily fortified. Despite numerous attempts, Israel has not been able to penetrate them.

Whenever Israeli forces have attempted to penetrate the tunnels, they have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the intrepid Al-Qassam Brigade fighters. While Israel has not officially disclosed its overall casualty figures, unofficial reports from the zionist entity paint a very grim picture.

At least 3,000 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza and another 11,000 injured, some with permanent disabilities. Families that lost their sons in battle are in total shock. They have received no satisfactory explanation from the military high command or politicians as to how the heavily-armed Israeli army has suffered such high casualties.

While Israel claims that after seven months of fighting, it has wiped out most of al-Qassam Brigade fighters, Hamas is still able to carry out attacks against the invaders. It re-emerged in Jabalia in the north that the Israeli army claimed had cleared in February of Hamas fighters.

On May 4, for instance, Islamic fighters struck Israeli military targets in the Karim abu-Salem area (Kerem Shalom) killing four soldiers and seriously wounding several others. Israeli troops fled from there. In two days of fighting in Jabalia on May 17 and 18, more than 20 Israeli soldiers were killed. Scores of tanks and armoured personnel carriers were also destroyed. An Israeli helicopter was shot down. Similar losses were inflicted on the invading forces in Rafah.

In trying to justify its brutal assault on defenceless civilians in Rafah, the Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari advanced the excuse that Hamas could move northward and regroup. It was both an admission of Israel’s failure and a desperate attempt to justify the genocide of innocent people. Most of the world has rejected Israel’s excuses.

There is no justification for genocide. None.

This brings us to the question of Hamas’ ability to carry out such operations even after eight months of relentless Israeli bombardment. True, the cost in civilian lives is horrendous but Israeli barbarism has only exposed its true face to the world. Its claim to victimhood no longer sells.

On the other hand, Palestinians whether in Gaza or the West Bank, are seething with anger at Israel’s mindboggling brutality. Add to that the violence inflicted by obnoxious zionist settlers and one can begin to get a sense of the stifling environment the Palestinians have lived under for 50 years.

It needs reiterating that the current crisis did not start on October 7, 2023. It was not peace and quiet, at least for the Palestinians. The zionists enjoyed peace and quiet and even held concerts on stolen land while their murderous army continued to kill Palestinians.

The zionists got so used to killing Palestinians that it became the norm. In 2023, some 250 Palestinians were murdered in the West Bank (before the October 7 operations) making it the deadliest year on record. Similar atrocities were inflicted on Palestinian youth in Gaza from across the artificial border fence erected by the zionists.

Israeli snipers routinely shot and killed Palestinian youth. Thousands of others were maimed since March 2018 in what came to be called the ‘Great March of Return’.

For Palestinians, the Nakba is ongoing since 1948. They have decided that they will die fighting rather than be shot and killed in the street. Self-defence is a fundamental right of people under occupation. Fighting their occupiers “by any means necessary” is also recognized in International Law.

This is what the Palestinians are doing. No amount of vile zionist propaganda can obfuscate this fundamental fact.