Abu Obeida: Settling Accounts With Zionist Regime Ongoing

The “settling of accounts” with “Israel” will remain open until a full and heavy price is paid, the spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, stated on Tuesday, stressing that the “cowardly enemy” is deluded if it believes that it can weaken the Resistance through the assassination of its leaders.

In a statement, Abu Obeida said that “to anyone with insight and sound judgment, it has become clear that we are facing a vile enemy that possesses no morality except its opposite, does not abide by agreements, and has fundamentally misread the situation,” noting that the spilled Palestinian blood has continued unabated despite existing agreements.

He added that the blood of the martyred leaders is “the fuel that drives our ship to overcome hardships,” affirming that “there remain leaders among us who were forged in the fields of steadfastness and preparation, refined by experience and hardened by wars.”

Abu Obeida to the people of Gaza: It is forbidden for us to betray this blood

In a message directed to the people of the Gaza Strip, Abu Obeida said, “Our people in Gaza, we have heard your words, listened to your chants, and witnessed your majestic marches in farewell to the martyred leaders, and it is forbidden for us to betray this blood.”

He continued, “We will remain faithful to you and to embracing your freedom-fighting sons, and these sacrifices, great and immense as they are, will, God willing, yield a clear and decisive victory.”

Abu Obeida also recalled the martyred commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad (Abu Suhaib), head of the General Staff of the al-Qassam Brigades, noting that he played a central role in planning, preparing, and directly overseeing the October 7 operation.

He also highlighted the role of the martyred senior commander Mohammed Odeh, explaining that he left his mark on every field, as he was among the founding core of the brigades’ military manufacturing, before moving on to lead the military intelligence apparatus, where he played a key role in planning the October 7 operation.

Call to mediators and the Arab, Islamic nations to restrain the occupation

On the political and international level, Abu Obeida stressed that the ongoing Israeli crimes place mediators and guarantors of agreements before a moment of truth, considering that “remaining silent or neutral is no longer acceptable.”

He called for unifying and intensifying all efforts to restrain the occupation and compel it to fulfill its commitments, praising Resistance factions that have inflicted losses on the enemy, pointing out the fighters of Lebanon who, he said, have “written epic acts of heroism in confronting Zionist arrogance.”

In conclusion, Abu Obeida renewed his call to the Arab and Islamic nations, urging them to set aside differences and redirect focus toward “the sole enemy of the Ummah.”

Despite ongoing ceasefire arrangements, the occupation continues to carry out assassinations, which Palestinian factions and Resistance movements across the region have consistently condemned as war crimes and violations of international law.

Al-Haddad’s role in rebuilding and leading Al-Qassam Brigades

Al-Haddad, born in Gaza City in 1970, joined Hamas shortly after its establishment in 1987 before emerging as one of the most prominent military leaders within the al-Qassam Brigades. He began his armed activity among the movement’s earliest armed formations and steadily rose through the ranks, serving as a field commander, battalion commander, and later commander of the Gaza Brigade following the assassination of commander Bassem Issa by “Israel” in 2021.

Over recent years, al-Haddad became one of the leading members of the Brigades’ general military council and was tasked with overseeing northern Gaza and rebuilding military capabilities following successive Israeli wars on the Strip. “Israel” accused him of participating in the planning of the October 7 operation and considered him among the key military figures directing combat operations throughout the ongoing war.

Following the assassinations of Mohammad Deif, Marwan Issa, and Mohammad Sinwar, al-Haddad emerged as the most senior military commander within the al-Qassam Brigades, assuming leadership of the Brigades’ General Staff. He became the fifth Chief of Staff in the movement’s history after Salah Shehadeh, Ahmad al-Jaabari, Mohammad Deif, and Mohammad Sinwar.

For years, al-Haddad remained among “Israel’s” most wanted Resistance leaders, surviving several assassination attempts while living between tunnels and secret locations away from public view. With his assassination, the al-Qassam Brigades bid farewell to another commander in its history of resistance and liberation, one regarded as among the movement’s most influential military figures who played a central role in building and directing its armed wing over the past decades.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=33395 #abuObeida #alAqsaFlood #alQassam #gaza #hamas #palestine #westAsia

Hamas Mourns Al-Qassam Commander Mohammad Odeh

The Hamas movement has announced the martyrdom of senior military commander Mohammad Odeh, also known as Abu Amro, a foundational figure in its armed wing who was martyred alongside his wife, three of his children.

In a statement, Hamas eulogized Odeh as a man who “rose steadfast and proud in the fields of struggle and giving, writing a new page of pride and dignity with his pure blood.” He was martyred along with his wife and his children, Yasser, Yahya, and Jamila.

Odeh is considered a member of the first generation of Hamas’s military wing and one of its earliest founders, and worked alongside key historical figures including commander Abu Muadh Al-Namrouti, Abu Khaled Al-Dayf, and Sheikh Salah Shehadeh.

He spent 30 years alongside senior martyrs, outliving many of them. Despite leaving behind what the movement called a “great legacy,” he remained largely unknown to the public. He lived his life of armed activism away from the spotlight. Aside from one well-known image, obtained by zionist forces after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, he was almost absent from media coverage.

A record of confrontation and leadership

Odeh was known for his bravery. In late 2000, when Palestinian Authority security forces came to arrest Sheikh Salah Shehadrh in the Al-Alami area of the Beit Lahia project, Odeh reportedly opened fire and confronted them.

He rose through the ranks of the military apparatus:

  • 2001: Became head of a central department within the military manufacturing branch.
  • 2009: Appointed commander of the Al-Khalifah Battalion (Central Camp), a position he held for two years.
  • Later roles: Served as deputy commander of the Northern Brigade, head of combat intelligence at the central apparatus level, and from 2015 to 2020, served as commander of the Northern Brigade.

According to Hamas, his period of command oversaw a build-up of military capabilities and an ability to unify technical and specialized efforts. He was described as very close to the commander Mohammad Al-Dayf, who reportedly saw in him “trust, leadership, professionalism, and competence.”

Most Recent Roles and Strategic Influence

From 2020 to early 2022, Odeh served as commander of weapons support and combat services. From 2022, through Operation al-Aqsa Flood, until his martyrdom, he was commander of military intelligence within the armed wing and a member of the movement’s national security system, both internally and externally. He was leading one of the most sensitive files in the organization, Hamas stated.

He formulated strategic intelligence assessments with professionalism and wisdom, relying on specialists and experts. He signed documents submitted to the leadership with the codename “Yasser.”

Senior commanders reportedly viewed him as the future commander of the military wing. However, he was described as having shunned leadership roles, avoiding appointments and top positions on multiple occasions, most recently after Operation al-Aqsa Flood and even following the death of commander Abu Saib Al-Haddad.

Those close to him said Odeh preferred collective, technical, and specialized teamwork, focusing on rapid achievements, particularly in long-term strategic matters.

Below we publish the Hamas statement in full:

— In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. “Among the believers are men who have proven true to what they pledged to Allah. Some of them have fulfilled their vow to the death, and some still wait, and they have not altered the terms of their commitment by any alteration.” Press Statement: Mourning the Great Al-Qassam Commander, the Martyr Mohammed Odeh (Abu Amr) With all feelings of pride and honor, and with more faith, submission, patience, and steadfastness, and continuing the path of sacrifice and jihad, on the path of defending the land and the holy sites, we mourn to our Palestinian people, our Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, the great Al-Qassam commander, the hero, the martyr: Mohammed Odeh (Abu Amr) He ascended to his Lord as a martyr yesterday evening, Tuesday, 26/05/2026, corresponding to the blessed day of Arafah, 9 Dhu al-Hijjah 1447 AH, along with his wife and two of his children in a treacherous zionist bombing that targeted a residential building in Gaza City, in a desperate attempt to undermine the steadfastness and will of our people and their resistance, and in a flagrant violation of all values, norms, laws, and divine religions. The great commander Abu Amr departed to his Lord as a martyr after a jihadist journey full of sacrifice, patience, and ribat, spanning more than three decades. He was of the first generation that founded the jihadist and military work, and he had clear fingerprints in all its blessed stages and milestones, even until the Al-Aqsa Flood, in terms of building, preparation, planning, and innovation, at all levels: professional, technical, and specialized academic. He was an example of a brilliant commander in planning, directing, and uniting efforts, expertise, and resources, and he worked with wisdom, competence, strength, and power, and in silence far from media exposure, until he attained the honor of the highest aspirations on the land of Gaza, on the blessed day of Arafah. The martyr commander fighter Mohammed Odeh, may Allah have mercy on him, lived accompanying the journey of the first founding generation, over three decades, ascetic, humble, noble, wise, and honest. He was a guard on the frontier of preparation, construction, and planning, and he had been wanted and pursued by the zionist occupation for many years, until the time of divine selection came, and he joined his companions on the path, the martyr commanders, leaving behind a great legacy, an influential mark, and a fragrant biography that will remain a source of inspiration and a role model for the generations of our Palestinian people, Allah willing. We confirm that the blood of the martyr commander Mohammed Odeh and his family, and all the blood of the martyrs from our leaders and the children of our steadfast people, who ascended on the path of liberating the land and the holy sites, will not go in vain, and will remain fuel that kindles in our people the strength and insistence to continue the path of struggle and steadfastness. The fascist occupation government’s escalation of its crimes in assassination, siege, and starvation in the Gaza Strip will not succeed in achieving their goals that they have failed at, nor in breaking the will of our people and their resistance. May Allah the Almighty have mercy on the great commander, the martyr fighter Mohammed Odeh, Abu Amr, forgive him, and dwell him in the highest paradise of Jannah, with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous, and excellent are those as companions. We ask Allah the Almighty in these blessed days to protect our people and our nation from the plots and danger of this brutal zionist entity. It is a jihad of victory or martyrdom. Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Wednesday: 27/05/2026 AD

Corresponding to: 10 Dhu al-Hijjah 1447 AH

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=33226 #alQassam #gaza #guerrilla #hamas #palestine #resistance

“LIVE BLOG: Gaza Strikes Intensify as Hezbollah Escalates Attacks, Israeli Officer Killed – Day 78”

by Palestine Chronicle Staff

@palestine
@Palestine
@[email protected]
@iran

“Key Developments

- Israeli attacks across Gaza killed and wounded Palestinians, including civilians targeted in Khan Younis, Jabalia, and Gaza City.
- #AlQassam said Palestinian resistance would continue following the assassination of commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad.
- Israeli media reported a #Golani #Brigade platoon commander was killed in southern Lebanon after a drone incident.
- Hezbollah condemned Haddad’s assassination and launched new attacks targeting Israeli military positions and equipment.
- Yoav Gallant admitted Israel failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives against Iran”

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/live-blog-gaza-strikes-intensify-as-hezbollah-escalates-attacks-israeli-officer-killed-day-78/

#Press #SocialMedia #Gaza #PalestinianGenocide #Zionism #SettlerColonialism #Resistance #DismantleZionism #DecolonizePalestine #GlobaliseTheIntifada #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #Lebanon #Hezbollah

‘Ghost of Gaza’: Al-Qassam Confirms Killing of Chief of Staff Ezzeddin al-Haddad

The Al-Qassam Brigades announced on Saturday the martyrdom of its Chief of Staff, Ezzeddin al-Haddad, known as Abu Suhaib, saying he was killed in a zionist strike in Gaza City alongside members of his family and several Palestinians.

In a statement, Al-Qassam described the killing as a “cowardly assassination” and said the operation constituted a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

The movement added that targeting senior resistance leaders would not alter the course of confrontation.

“The assassination of leaders will only reinforce the Resistance’s determination to continue its path of struggle,” the statement said.

Palestinian resistance sources had earlier confirmed al-Haddad’s death following the strike.

Deadly Strike in Al-Rimal

Al-Haddad was killed after zionist forces struck a residential building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood west of Gaza City on Friday.

The attack caused extensive destruction in a densely populated civilian area.

Local reports said at least eight Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in the strike, while rescue crews struggled to recover victims from beneath the rubble.

The bombardment came amid continued zionist attacks across Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire discussions.

Health authorities said zionist attacks over the previous 24 hours killed 13 Palestinians and wounded 57 others.

According to figures released by Gaza’s Health Ministry, the overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has reached 72,757, with 172,645 wounded.

The ‘Ghost of Gaza’

Born in Gaza in 1970, al-Haddad joined Hamas during the movement’s early years in the 1980s and later became one of the most prominent military leaders within Al-Qassam.

He became widely known as the ‘Ghost of Gaza’ because of his secrecy and ability to avoid repeated zionist attempts to locate him.

Zionist occupation forces reportedly attempted to assassinate him six times and offered a reward of $750,000 for information leading to his whereabouts.

Al-Haddad succeeded Mohammad al-Sinwar following his assassination in 2025 and later assumed broader leadership responsibilities within the movement.

Zionist media had increasingly described him as one of the regime’s highest-priority targets following the assassinations of senior Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Marwan Issa.

Family Recalls Years of Sacrifice

As funeral processions moved through Gaza City on Saturday, family members described a life shaped by imprisonment, resistance activity, and repeated personal loss.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Mubasher, his sister Mahitab al-Haddad said the family received news of his death “with patience and acceptance.”

She said al-Haddad had spent years moving between Israeli prisons and detention by the Palestinian Authority before continuing his role within Al-Qassam.

Mahitab said he had suffered repeated losses during the war, including sons and relatives, yet remained steadfast.

“He remained patient and encouraged others to remain patient,” she said.

Family members also described him as a figure known among Gaza residents for assisting people and remaining committed to family responsibilities despite years of war and pursuit.

Aya al-Haddad, his brother’s wife, described his martyrdom as “an honor for the family,” saying he remained close to relatives and continued helping those around him despite the war.

Funeral Crowds Fill Gaza Streets

Thousands of Palestinians took part in funeral processions across Gaza on Saturday. Crowds chanted slogans supporting Palestinian resistance while carrying al-Haddad’s body through the streets.

Al-Haddad’s killing comes as zionist continues its campaign in Gaza and amid ongoing efforts to secure a broader ceasefire agreement.

Al-Qassam reiterated that assassinations and continued military escalation would not alter its position.

“The path of resistance will continue,” the movement said.

Hamas Releases Statement

Hamas released a statement which we publish below:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

“Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah. Some of them have fulfilled their vow by sacrificing their lives, and others still await, and they have not altered their determination by any means.”

With all feelings of pride and honor, and with hearts filled with pain mixed with faith, submission, patience, and steadfastness, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) mourns to our Palestinian people, our Arab and Islamic nation, and the free people of the world, the great commander and fighter martyr:

Who ascended to his Lord as a martyr on the evening of Friday, 15/05/2026, as a result of a treacherous and cowardly “israeli” assassination crime. It targeted him along with members of his family and a number of safe civilians in the Gaza Strip, which led to his martyrdom along with his wife, Umm Suhaib, his daughter Nour, and a number of innocent citizens, after a path of struggle filled with giving, sacrifice, preparation, and ribat. During this path, he remained steadfast in the fields of confrontation, advancing and never retreating, defending his people, his land, and his sanctities until the last moments.

The martyr commander Abu Suhaib represented an exceptional model of the steadfast, fighting commander who spent his life in the fields of resistance, preparation, and confronting the occupation. He was one of the pillars of the resistance project in the Gaza Strip, a beacon for the fighters, and an impenetrable dam in the face of attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause and break the will of our people. His wise leadership, field directives, and management of the battle of confrontation with the occupation, especially during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle, were a source of inspiration for the heroes of Al-Qassam, and a severe force against the enemy and its army.

The martyr commander Abu Suhaib ascended, after having offered during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle his own beloved children, the fighters Suhaib and Mumin, and his son-in-law, the fighter Mahmoud Abu Hasira, as martyrs on the path of Al-Quds and liberation, to join them as a steadfast, patient, and reckoning martyr, in a scene that embodies the greatness of the sacrifices offered by the resistance leaders and their families for the sake of Palestine and its sanctities.

The crime of assassinating the martyr commander Izz al-Din al-Haddad, and what the occupation continues to commit of crimes against our people in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire agreement came into effect, confirms once again the criminal and fascist nature of this terrorist entity, its disregard for all international laws and charters, and its failed attempts to impose political and field realities it failed to achieve by force, through the policy of killing, terrorism, pressure on the resistance leadership, influencing its political positions, and breaking the will, steadfastness, and tenacity of our people on their land.

The movement confirms that this crime, with all its dimensions and timing, places the international community, and the intermediary and guarantor countries of the agreement in particular, before their political, legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibilities to act immediately and seriously to compel the occupation government to fully adhere to the terms of the agreement and stop its ongoing crimes and aggression against innocent civilians. Furthermore, the continued international silence and failure to exert real pressure on the war criminal Netanyahu, the Hitler of the era who is wanted for international justice, have encouraged the occupation to continue its bloody approach and its ongoing aggression against our people.

As the movement mourns this great commander, it confirms that his pure blood, and the blood of all the martyr leaders and fighters, will not go in vain. Rather, it will remain fuel for the battle of liberation and a light illuminating the path of resistance towards Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa, and that the path of struggle and resistance will continue, with more strength, firmness, and determination. Assassination and terrorism crimes will not succeed in breaking the will of our people or dissuading them from adhering to their national rights and constants.

The movement also calls on our Palestinian people for more cohesion, unity, and steadfastness, and to thwart all the occupation’s plans aimed at undermining the unity of our people and their resistance. It confirms that our people, who have offered these blessed convoys of martyr leaders, are capable, by the permission of Allah, of continuing the path of liberation until the occupation is expelled and our full national rights are wrested.

The martyr commander Abu Suhaib concluded his blessed journey with martyrdom, to remain a symbol of giving, steadfastness, and loyalty to Palestine, Al-Quds, Al-Aqsa, and the prisoners, and for his biography to remain a school for generations in sacrifice and adherence to rights and constants.

May Allah the Almighty have mercy on the great commander and fighter martyr Izz al-Din al-Haddad, Abu Suhaib, forgive him, grant him the highest Paradise with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous, and excellent are those as companions.

And it is a jihad of victory or martyrdom.

Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)

Friday, 15/05/2026
Corresponding to: 28 Dhu al-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Resistance Factions Commented on the Assassination

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine described Izz al-Din al-Haddad as the “General Commander” of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, praising him as a central figure in coordinating joint resistance efforts and rebuilding resistance leadership structures during the war. They highlighted his role in directing battlefield operations during the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation and noted that the zionist entity had failed for years to target the “Ghost of al-Qassam.”

Fatah al-Intifada referred to al-Haddad as the commander of the military general staff of the al-Qassam Brigades and emphasized his courage in confronting the zionist military operations and the war in Gaza. They emphasized that the blood of fallen leaders would inspire future generations.

The Palestinian Mujahideen Movement and the Mujahideen Brigades emphasized al-Haddad’s long history of armed struggle, framing his death within a religious narrative of sacrifice and martyrdom. They stressed that assassinations after more than a year of war would not defeat the resistance, describing fallen leaders as guiding symbols for the continued struggle.

The National Resistance Brigades (Omar al-Qasim Forces) stated that al-Haddad was martyred alongside his wife, daughter, and other civilians in central Gaza. The statement explicitly described the assassination as a violation of the ceasefire agreement and emphasized national goals, including freedom, the right of return, and independence.

The joint statement by the Palestinian resistance factions emphasized unity among the groups and described al-Haddad’s martyrdom as proof that assassinations cannot defeat the resistance. The factions stressed that every fallen commander strengthens the movement, reaffirmed their commitment to armed struggle, and vowed to continue fighting for the liberation of Palestine, including Al-Quds and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad exalted the martyr Izz al-Din al-Haddad, and condemned the entity’s actions as a violation of the ceasefire and said the assassinations of resistance leaders would only strengthen Palestinian resolve and resistance.

Hezbollah proclaimed that they “strongly condemn the heinous crime committed by the occupation, which led to the martyrdom of the general commander of the Al-Qassam Brigades, Izz al-Din al-Haddad.” https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=32791 #alAqsaFlood #alQassam #gaza #hamas #hezbollah #palestine #pflp #pij #resistance #westAsia #westBank

Hamas Dismisses US-Backed Disarmament Plan as ‘Collective Suicide’

Hamas has rejected a US-backed proposal to disarm, describing it as a “trap” that risks igniting internal war in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials who spoke with Middle East Eye (MEE).

The plan was presented earlier this month in Cairo by Gaza Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov, with US officials present, as part of ongoing ceasefire talks that have stalled due to zionist violations and unmet obligations.

Palestinian sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations said Hamas believes the proposal is designed to “ignite civil war in the Gaza Strip and destabilize Palestinian society.”

A Gaza-based source told MEE, “Hamas completely rejects this,” adding that within the Qassam Brigades, disarmament is viewed as “collective suicide.”

The resistance movement argues that surrendering weapons would leave Palestinians exposed, especially as “Israeli-backed armed gangs” continue to operate.

“They know that giving up their weapons is not an option and will not happen,” the source said.

The proposal also includes the removal of around 20,000 civil servants from Gaza’s administrative structure, which Hamas considers unworkable.

“This would be a complete disaster for any society,” the source said, questioning who would replace experienced personnel tasked with running the besieged enclave.

Hamas officials insist that any discussion of disarmament must follow full implementation of the first phase of the ceasefire.

That includes lifting restrictions on humanitarian aid, which the zionist regime has not fulfilled, allowing only a small fraction of the required air to enter the strip.

Talks over the past two weeks have been described as tense, with Mladenov reportedly issuing a 48-hour ultimatum, warning that fighting could resume if Hamas did not respond.

Egypt has urged Hamas to accept the proposal; however, sources indicate that Hamas still insists on firm guarantees that the zionsit regime will fulfill its commitments before any second-phase negotiations move forward.

The eight-month plan presented by the Board of Peace proposes a phased process to disarm Hamas and other resistance factions while transferring governance in Gaza to a technocratic body, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

The plan is meant to unfold across five stages, ending with a partial zionist withdrawal and reconstruction, but it makes no mention of Palestinian statehood, indicating continued Israeli control.

Hamas official Bassem Naim rejected the proposal, accusing Mladenov of serving zionist and US agendas and warning that linking reconstruction to disarmament “contradicts previous understandings.”

Israel Hayom recently reported that the zionist regime is preparing to resume its genocide on Gaza as the deadline for Hamas disarmament approaches, with Tel Aviv warning it would “complete the mission” if the resistance does not surrender its weapons.

Zionist violations of the ceasefire have continued unabated, with hundreds of Palestinians killed since the agreement took effect and aid deliberately restricted to a fraction of agreed levels, leaving Gaza’s population exposed to famine conditions.

Last week, zionist soldiers killed two UNICEF-contracted truck drivers and injured two others during a routine water delivery operation at Gaza City’s only operational filling point, disrupting critical aid as shortages deepen across the strip.

Since the so-called ceasefire was declared, at least 738 Palestinians have been killed by zionist forces, including at least 214 children and dozens of women.

source: The Cradle

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=31783 #alAqsaFlood #alQassam #gaza #hamas #palestine #resistance #westAsia
⭕5 morts, dont 3 enfants, suite au bombardement par l'aviation de l'occupant d'un groupe de civils dans la cour de la mosquée #Al-Qassam au projet #Beit-Lahia, au Nord de la bande de #Gaza. #Qudsn

Debunking the Lie That “’Israel’ Created Hamas”

The Palestinian Islamic organization Hamas is both an armed group and a political movement. It is supported by a large proportion of the Palestinian population, primarily due to its leading role in resisting Israel.

Despite its deep roots in Palestinian society, there is a pervasive, false narrative about the origins of Hamas that is widely promoted, particularly in the West – including among some sympathetic to the Palestinian national liberation cause.

That narrative goes like this: Hamas was encouraged or even created by Israel to undermine the secular Palestine Liberation Organization of the late leader Yasser Arafat.

But this narrative is a myth that emerged from both anti-Hamas elements within Palestinian society and by Israeli intelligence.

Among the former is Muhammed Dahlan who – ironically – later worked closely with the Central Intelligence Agency and was instrumental in the failed, US- and Israel-backed coup against the Hamas government that was elected by the population in 2006.

The main claims to this narrative – and a more recent iteration used as a cudgel by opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – fall apart upon closer scrutiny.

Historian Khaled Hroub, a prominent expert on Hamas, explained to The Electronic Intifada why the myth is baseless.

Long and layered history

The narrative that Israel created or supported, whether directly or indirectly, Hamas has a long and layered history.

One of the earliest influential instances of this narrative in the English-language media is a March 1981 report by David K. Shipler for The New York Times.

Shipler quotes Yitzhak Segev, then Israel’s military governor of Gaza, stating that “the Israeli government gave me a budget and the military government gives to the mosques.” Shipler adds, without explicitly attributing these claims to Segev, that these “funds are used for both mosques and religious schools, with the purpose of strengthening a force that runs counter to the pro-PLO leftists.”

In a later edition of his 1986 book Arab and Jew, which won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, Shipler synthesized Segev’s remarks by stating that Segev told him that Israel had “financed the Islamic Movement as a counterweight to the PLO and the communists.” Shipler parenthetically remarks that this funding “helped nourish the seeds of Hamas.”

Since then, the “counterweight” line has been attributed not to Shipler but to Segev, whose position as military governor lent this putative narrative credibility. The misattribution has been made by numerous publications and commentators, including The Intercept and analyst Alon Ben-Meir.

Another early article in the American press that popularized this narrative is a 1992 piece for the Los Angeles Times by Yossi Melman, a longstanding opponent of Netanyahu, titled “Hamas: When a Former Client Becomes an Implacable Enemy.”

This was compounded by Andrew Higgins’ 2009 article for The Wall Street Journal titled “How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas.”

That piece quotes Avner Cohen, an Israeli official responsible for “religious affairs” in Gaza at the time of Hamas’ ascendance, who remarks that “Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation.” Paraphrasing Cohen, Higgins states that Israel “for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged” the Islamic Movement in Gaza as a supposed counterweight to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization.

As this article will demonstrate, the actual history is much more complex and the facts do not support the “Israel created Hamas” myth.

Yet the myth proliferated after Hamas’ surprise offensive on 7 October 2023, code-named Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Mainstream and establishment media have also echoed these claims, including Mark Mazzetti and Ronen Bergman’s widely read December 2023 article for The New York Times titled “‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas.” Around the same time, CNN also amplified the related narrative that a Qatari cash pipeline to Hamas-governed Gaza was not only approved but championed by Netanyahu, who, according to CNN, was criticized by some of his coalition partners “for being too soft on Hamas.”

Zionist outlets have used this narrative as a cudgel against Netanyahu, who they claim was overly permissive in his handling of Hamas. Tal Schneider, a political correspondent for The Times of Israel, averred in an op-ed published on 8 October 2023 that Israel’s longstanding policy had “propped up” Hamas, thereby effectively paving the road for Hamas’ operation the previous day.

Josep Borrell, the former European Union foreign policy chief, remarked in 2024: “Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah.”

Not only does Borrell claim that Israel allowed for Qatari funding to Gaza, but he also implies that this amounted to Israel financing Hamas.

This misrepresentation of history is unsubstantiated and misleading.

Political rivalry catalyzed myth

The earliest insinuations of the “Israel created Hamas” myth come from figures close to Israel’s intelligence and military establishment, including Segev and his aforementioned remarks about the Israeli government allocating funds to the mosques during the nascent Islamic Movement’s mosque-building phase.

In his book Hamas: Political Thought and Practice, historian Khaled Hroub notes that Israeli assessments and interpretations concerning the ascendance of Palestinian Islamism were varied and sometimes contradictory. Some viewed the rise of Islamists as an Israeli “plot,” while “others posited that Israeli policy merely ignored the phenomenon; still others asserted that the Israeli stance was absolutely and implacably hostile and aimed to repress the phenomenon.”

But the myth was cemented by Hamas’ rivals in the Palestinian political arena – chiefly Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose ideological opposition to Hamas is rooted in the founders of the secular Fatah party’s splitting from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood (whose existence predates that of the state of Israel) in the 1950s.

In his book, Hroub observes that “the PLO information apparatus wholeheartedly adopted [the Israeli] interpretations and worked to propagate them,” favoring the interpretation declaring “Hamas to be merely a creation of Israel to weaken the PLO.”

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, sits in his office in the Gaza Strip, 17 November 2001.

Tensions between the PLO, the vanguard of the Palestinian national liberation struggle since the 1960s, and Hamas, which emerged in the late 1980s, rose shortly before the 1991 Madrid Conference that prefigured the Oslo accords signed by Israel and the PLO.

The PLO extended an invitation to Hamas to participate in a preparatory committee aimed at reconstructing the Palestinian National Council, a body representing Palestinians in their homeland and in the diaspora. After Hamas demurred, the PLO’s official organ Filastin al-Thawra instigated “a vituperous campaign … that accused Hamas of deserting the unity of nationalist ranks,” as Hroub describes in his book.

“The PLO’s statements focused on the idea that Hamas had been established to satisfy an Israeli aim, or at least that it had been established with the consent of Israel in order to weaken the PLO,” Hroub states.

During the Madrid Conference, Hamas published a communiqué discrediting the PLO due to what the former characterized as the latter’s capitulation to the occupation.

Tensions increased further after several Palestinian factions – including Islamic, nationalist and left-wing/Marxist organizations – coalesced into a united front opposed to the so-called peace process.

These factions called for a general strike while the Madrid Conference was convened between 28 and 30 October 1991. As Hroub notes in his book, “the success of the strike was remarkable and worrying to the PLO leadership.”

The leadership of Hamas and 10 other factions meanwhile convened at a conference held in Tehran from 22 to 24 October 1991. After Hamas opened an office in the Iranian capital in early 1992, PLO leaders “constantly” accused Hamas of “owing allegiance to a foreign power,” according to Hroub.

In late 1992, Arafat claimed that Hamas received $30 million annually in support from Iran – “an allegation that Hamas denied categorically as being both alarmist and exaggerated,” Hroub observes. The Arab and Western press soon echoed these claims.

Arafat sought to cast aspersions on Hamas, which vehemently opposed negotiations with Israel and Fatah’s abandonment of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return. Given that Hamas also began coordinating with leftist and nationalist factions, Arafat and the Fatah leadership feared that, with Hamas at the helm, the coalitions of factions opposed to the peace negotiations track might become a viable alternative to the PLO.

Over the next several years, Arafat and other Fatah leaders tried to mollify this worry by attempting to cajole Hamas into joining the PLO. When Hamas, which insisted on the PLO implementing significant reforms, rebuffed these efforts, Arafat launched a campaign to delegitimize Hamas.

Arafat claimed in an interview with Dina Nascetti published in the 13 December 2001 edition of the Italian weekly magazine L’Espresso that then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, “with his intransigence,” had “favored the Islamic extremists, whose attacks have given him an excuse to invoke self-defense.”

Incidentally, the author states in the same article that Mossad “takes care of” Arafat’s security when he travels outside the Palestinian territories, with the implication being that Israel would prefer Arafat over more “extreme” Palestinian elements – contradicting Arafat’s claim that Hamas enjoyed preferential treatment.

In the subsequent issue of L’Espresso, Nascetti published a second interview with Arafat in which the Palestinian leader’s remarks were even more pointed. When questioned about Hamas’ “terrorism,” Arafat responded by saying:

“Hamas was formed with Israel’s support. The aim was to create an organization that would antagonize the PLO. It received funding and training from Israel. They continued to benefit from permits and authorizations, while we were denied even the permission to build a tomato factory. [Yitzhak] Rabin himself called it a fatal mistake.”

Although this quotation, or selective portions of it, has since been reproduced far and wide, Arafat’s claim about Hamas having received training from Israel was both unprecedented and wholly unsubstantiated.

It is possible that Arafat had in mind an unsourced claim produced in 1989 by Michal Sela of The Jerusalem Post, which stated that Israel’s “military government believed that their [the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood’s] activity would undermine the power of the PLO and of leftist organizations in Gaza. They even supplied some of their activists with weapons, for their protection.”

However, the actual origins of Hamas bear little resemblance to what was alleged by Arafat.

Muhammad Dahlan speaks during a Fatah rally in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 23 January 2006.

Heidi Levine SIPA

In 1973, the Islamic Center, known in Arabic as al-Mujamma al-Islami, was founded by the teacher and charismatic religious leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and other figures from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood who would later become closely associated with Hamas, including Mahmoud al-Zahar, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, Ibrahim Fares al-Yazouri, Abdul Fatah Dukhan, Issa al-Najjar and Salah Shehadeh. The Islamic Center’s focus was providing charity and welfare to refugee camps and poor urban areas neglected by other political parties.

As Shaul Mishal and Avraham Sela recount in their 2000 book The Palestinian Hamas, the number of mosques in Gaza doubled from 77 in 1967 to 150 by 1986 – the period leading up to Hamas’ formation. There were 200 mosques by 1989.

The mosques served as clandestine political sanctuaries safe from Israeli surveillance and as venues where the Islamic Movement could spread its message, build support and gain influence.

This phase occurred in a wider context in which “Islamist parties rose speedily in the political scene,” not only in the Levant but also in the Gulf region and North Africa, Hroub told The Electronic Intifada.

In neighboring Jordan, where political and social dynamics mirror those in Palestine, Hroub added, “Islamists won almost one-third of the seats in the 1989 parliamentarian elections.”

Within this regional change, according to Hroub, Palestinian Islamists shifted their strategy “from re-Islamization of society and focusing on charity and social work to resistance and confrontation against Israel.”

Hroub added that “along with this change of strategy, [the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood] changed their name to Hamas,” emerging as such towards the end of the period during which the Brotherhood was focused on building social institutions; the eruption of the first intifada in Gaza in early December 1987 coincided with Hamas’ formation.

Israeli permits

A key facet of the “Israel created Hamas” myth is rooted in this phase of institution building from which Hamas emerged.

“Two main Islamist hubs are usually mentioned in this context,” according to Hroub: the Islamic Center and the Islamic University of Gaza, founded in 1973 and 1978, respectively.

The fact that Israel issued a permit to the Islamic Center six years after its founding, allowing it to operate above board, seeded the myth that Israel not only consented to the formation of Hamas but encouraged it.

In reality, the Islamic Center’s permit was temporarily rescinded soon after its issuance and only reissued after a lengthy arbitration process.

Additionally, as Mishal and Sela acknowledge, Yassin and his Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood colleagues submitted “repeated requests” for licensing to the Israeli military administration beginning in 1970, but were rejected. Indeed, as the authors write, these rejections were “not least because of [Israel’s] opposition to traditional Islamic elements.”

Meanwhile, the Islamists’ secular rivals and their associations were beholden to the same Israeli colonial authorities, from which they also received permits to operate legally during this period – as was Birzeit University near the West Bank city of Ramallah in 1978.

Useful cudgel

Yet the misleading claim that Hamas readily received permits from a forthcoming Israel has proven enduring and continues to be a useful cudgel wielded by the resistance movement’s opposition.

It has its roots in a 1985 courtyard debate at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) between a young Yahya Sinwar, belonging to the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood’s student activist circle, the Islamic Bloc, and Fatah’s Muhammad Dahlan.

As Nihad al-Sheikh Khalil recounts in his 2011 book The Muslim Brothers Movement in the Gaza Strip (1967–1987), during the years 1984-1986, the student activists of the Islamic Bloc at IUG participated in a number of “discussions and debates” with Fatah students, which “took place spontaneously within the university courtyards.”

Citing an interview with Subhi al-Yazji, currently a professor at IUG, al-Sheikh Khalil conveys that these discussions revolved around the Palestinian cause and armed struggle. “The most notable” such debate, al-Sheikh Khalil writes, was conducted “between Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Dahlan in 1985,” with the conversation focusing “on the exchange of accusations between the two sides [i.e., Fatah and the Islamic Movement].”

During their discussion, Sinwar condemned the Fatah leadership’s “peace overtures” while Dahlan “reproached the Muslim Brothers for not carrying out armed struggle against Israel and for operating the Islamic Association with a permit from the occupation.”

Over the subsequent decades, Dahlan would continue articulating different versions of this claim, including in a November 2015 interview with Al Jazeera in which he said that Hamas “cooperates with Israel” indirectly by securing Gaza’s boundary with Israel.

Ironically, Muhammed Dahlan later began to work directly with the CIA. He collaborated with the US and Israel in an effort to reverse the results of the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006, in which Hamas won a majority of seats, contrary to the expectations of the Palestinian Authority’s Western patrons.

These efforts resulted in a short-lived civil war between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank in 2007. Coup efforts by Fatah were decisively crushed in Gaza with Dahlan forced to flee, but were successful in the West Bank where Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority continues to play a subcontractor role to Israel and prevents new elections from taking place.

False claims about cooperation with Israel quickly snowballed, gaining traction amongst the detractors of the Islamic Movement, and, after it came into being, Hamas.

Following Arafat’s excoriating aforementioned public remarks, the “permits narrative” was strategically instrumentalized by both the Hebrew press and the Shin Bet. As Hroub observes, this served “Israel’s strategy of firmly establishing that its Arab and Palestinian foes are not capable of carrying out any undertaking that may influence events outside Israel’s masterful control.”

Over the following decades, this narrative developed into the received view within much of Western academia, bolstered by political scientist Beverley Milton-Edwards’ influential 1996 book Islamic Politics in Palestine. Linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky also repeated the claim in 2010, saying that “in its early days, Israel supported Hamas as a weapon against the secular PLO.”

This narrative allowed for leaders in Fatah to besmirch Hamas while the former backtracked on the tenets of the 1968 Palestine National Covenant by rescinding armed struggle.

Benign Hamas

A claim related to the “Israel created Hamas” myth argues that, before the first intifada, Yassin and his group were viewed as non-threatening to the occupation and treated as such.

This claim stems from Israel’s arrest of Yassin in 1984 following the discovery of a weapons cache in Gaza. It rests on the perception that the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, which fought against Zionist forces before the conquest of Palestine in 1948, had abandoned armed resistance after the group launched a series of guerrilla raids against Israel from Jordan between 1968-1970 in the wake of the 1967 War and subsequent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Hroub writes in his history of Hamas that the raids were initiated by the broader Arab leadership and opposed by the Gaza branch, which viewed the idea as “futile.”

In the decade following the raids, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood focused on recruitment and deferred confrontation with Israel “under the conviction that they were preparing a new generation,” according to Hroub.

Given this retreat from armed resistance during the 1970s, conventional wisdom held that any weapons possessed by Yassin could not have been intended for armed resistance against Israel and were likely intended to be used against Palestinian rivals.

This is, however, at odds with the actual history.

Supporters of Hamas celebrate the faction’s election victory in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, 27 January 2006.

Ahmad Khateib Flash 90/KRT

The earliest signs of an Islamic armed resistance branch emerged in 1980, when the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership dispatched some of its members abroad to receive military instruction.

Beginning in the early 1980s, in the wake of the Islamic revolution in Iran and the ascendance of political Islam in the wider region, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood created several organizations explicitly for the sake of armed resistance. These included a military apparatus named the Islamic Resistance Movement – anticipating the formal name of Hamas – and a subsequent security apparatus, Munathameh al-Jihad wa al-Dawa, abbreviated “Majd,” as well as a secret military committee established in late 1982 and early 1983.

Ahmed Yassin created the aforementioned military branch in the Gaza Strip, initially commanded by Abdulrahman Tamraz and later by Salah Shehadeh, who would eventually become one of the leaders of Hamas’ armed wing. This nascent military wing formed by Yassin was exposed, leading to a crackdown by the Israeli authorities, who arrested Yassin in early 1984.

According to a contemporaneous article in The Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli publication, an Israeli military court in Gaza imprisoned a man from Nuseirat refugee camp “for selling weapons to an Islamic underground [sic] charged with plotting to wage ‘a holy war’ on Israel.”

The paper added that five other Gazans, including Yassin, “pleaded guilty to illegal possession of submachine guns, grenades, rifles and pistols” and paraphrased an Israeli military spokesperson asserting that the men “are believed to be the nucleus of religious anti-Israel activity in Gaza.”

This is not the first instance of the occupation persecuting the Islamic Movement prior to Hamas’ formation.

In 1972, the Islamic Movement tried to establish a library in Gaza City’s Al-Abbas Mosque in coordination with the Islamic religious endowments authority, but was rebuffed, as al-Sheikh Khalil details in his 2011 study of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza.

In response, according to al-Sheikh Khalil, Yassin “took it upon himself to build the library.” But during the beginning of its construction, Israeli police destroyed the foundation “so that the building could not be completed.”

Mosque-building turned out to be a slow and iterative process, for “when construction work began, the Israeli police or the occupation army would come and demolish the building, especially if it was in its early stages.”

Israel held a contradictory position toward the Islamic Movement’s mosque-building, sometimes sanctioning construction – such as with Jawrat al-Shams Mosque, the inauguration of which Israel’s military governor attended in September 1973 – and in other cases, impeding it.

The approach appeared to waver based on the individual Israeli colonial official involved, indicating the absence of a coherent government policy regarding the mosques.

Avner Cohen, the aforementioned religious affairs official, “became increasingly suspicious” that the Islamic Movement was using mosques to organize armed resistance against Israel, as Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Ferrel recount in their 2010 book Hamas.

Avner appealed to the Israeli military to outlaw the Islamic Center but was told that banning houses of worship would violate international law, according to journalist Charles Enderlin in his 2009 book Le Grand aveuglement. Cohen’s efforts were not entirely wasted, however, as only three days after he published his 1984 internal report on Gaza’s mosques, the Israeli authorities arrested Yassin.

As Azzam Tamimi recounts in his 2009 book Hamas: The Unwritten Chapters, an Israeli military court declared Yassin “guilty of plotting to destroy the State of Israel and sentenced him to 13 years imprisonment.”

Yassin was released a year later as part of a prisoner exchange in which three Israeli soldiers captured during the 1982 Lebanon War were exchanged for various prisoners held by Israel. Once free, Yassin was barred from engaging with the Islamic Center, but clandestinely, with Saleh Shehadeh, reconstituted the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood’s covert military formation, this time under the banner of the Palestinian Mujahideen, with the purpose of waging armed resistance against Israel in Gaza. Shehadeh organized armed resistance against the Israeli military between 1985 and 1987.

So where did the idea that Yassin and company’s weapons were to be used against fellow Palestinians emerge from?

As Tamimi summarizes in his book, “rumors were circulating in Gaza to the effect that the [Muslim Brotherhood] had been buying weapons in order to use them against their opponents in the other Palestinian factions.”

Having made powerful enemies in rival factions, the rumors regarding the Muslim Brotherhood “found ready credence, owing to the tension that gripped Gaza at the time,” with competition between Fatah and the Muslim Brotherhood playing out in battles over the administration of the Islamic University of Gaza.

“Israel funded Hamas”

The “Israeli created Hamas” myth became more prevalent following 7 October 2023, appended by the novel claim that Netanyahu enabled the Hamas offensive by allowing Qatar to transfer funds to Gaza.

This telling rests on a misrepresentation of the protracted 2018-2019 Great March of Return negotiations between Hamas and Israel, which yielded an Israeli concession to allow Qatar to pay the salaries of civil servants in Gaza, among other measures to ease economic stagnation, to provide humanitarian aid and to repair war-damaged infrastructure, in exchange for Hamas tamping down the intensity of the protests along the Israel-Gaza boundary.

Avigdor Liberman, then Israel’s defense minister, resigned in protest from Netanyahu’s government in November 2018, in part due to his opposition to the Qatari funding. Naftali Bennett, Israel’s education minister at the time, charged that Netanyahu was effectively paying Hamas “protection money” in order to purchase calm.

Civil servants in Gaza wait to receive their salaries at a post office in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, 9 November 2018.

Mahmoud Khattab APA images

Netanyahu’s political opponents continue to claim that the infusions of funding from Qatar to Gaza enabled the Qassam Brigades to prepare for its 7 October 2023 operation, despite the safeguards in place to ensure that payments were made directly to civil servants and families with eventual Israeli oversight and pledges by Hamas not to touch donor funds.

While Western media reports point to the Qatari infusion of funding into Gaza as an example of funding for Hamas, that money paid for the operation of critical civilian infrastructure and the alleviation of the economic hardship borne by years of Israeli and Western sanctions on the territory.

Funding to relieve the humanitarian situation in Gaza is not the same as funding Hamas, even if it is widely misrepresented as such.

“Qatari aid to the Gaza Strip is fully coordinated with Israel, the UN and the US,” an official from the Gulf state told Reuters in October 2023.

There is no proof to support the claims that the Qatari funds flowed to Hamas – which has other means of financing its military activities – but plenty of contemporaneous documentation of the intended beneficiaries receiving the funding.

Busted myth

It is a fallacy to state that Hamas is a creation of Israel or that Israel encouraged the formation of the group.

“Hamas is the outcome of a deeply rooted organization within the national Palestinian context, whose process of formation evolved over more than half a century,” Khaled Hroub told The Electronic Intifada. It emerged “within a broader regional ideological transformation (the rise of Islamism).”

“To reduce this historical movement and emergence to a reductionist claim that it was created by Israel, is simply nonsense,” Hroub added.

To acknowledge that Israel exploited “the existence of Hamas to further divide the Palestinians and facilitated control over them, is one thing.”

“To claim that Israel invented or created Hamas is totally another, if absurd, thing,” Hroub said.

Israel and its security apparatus may have at times been happy for the myth to persist, viewing it as preferable to accepting “the fact that this organization emerged and became strong against Israel’s will and its omnipresent intelligence.”

By perpetuating the myth, Israel preserves its image of omnipotent superiority and reinforces “the belief, and fear, that everything that happens in Palestine, and perhaps in the region, is foreknown by them,” according to Hroub.

Indeed, the persistence of the myth has facilitated myriad media commentators to readily claim that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was both known in advance to the Shin Bet and permitted to transpire such that Israel could exploit it as an opportunity to resolve the so-called “Gaza question” and its concomitant demographics problem.

Such claims are the logical endpoint of the “Israel created Hamas” narrative.

Unfortunately, otherwise discerning minds have repeated these myths, with the adage that “Israel funded Hamas” becoming a consensus view, foreclosing the conceptual possibility of the Palestinian resistance’s functioning as an independent political actor with self-sufficiency and agency.

Dispossessing Palestinians of their agency is a major plank in Israel’s psychological warfare campaign.

But the military offensive led by Hamas on 7 October 2023 forever destroyed the myths of Israeli invincibility and omniscience – a reality underscored by Iran’s devastating retaliation against US and Israeli attacks.

Mujamma Haraket is a translator and academic researcher in political philosophy with a specialization in non-state actors, political Islam and the history of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in particular. The author’s scholarly writing has been published in academic forums and in forums like Orinoco Tribune and Liberated Texts.

source: Electronic Intifada

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=31611 #alQassam #gaza #hamas #palestine #westAsia #westBank
⭕Sous la protection de la police #Israélienne, des bulldozers #Israéliens ont enseveli et rasé de nombreuses tombes à l'intérieur du cimetière #Al-Qassam à #Haïfa occupée. #West-Bank-Notifications

Abu Obeida Warns of Regional Escalation, Calls for Action for al-Aqsa

The spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, Abu Obeida, warned on Sunday that the region is facing a broad military aggression, accusing the zionist occupation of expanding its attacks and spreading destruction across multiple fronts.

Abu Obeida said the ongoing escalation reflects what he described as blatant violations that undermine international norms, adding that the aggression has extended beyond Gaza to Lebanon, Yemen, and even targeted regional states.

He added that the assault on Lebanon came after 14 months of sustained escalation, stressing that the scale of violence reflects a widening confrontation across the region.

Al-Aqsa, prisoners at the center of escalation

Abu Obeida stressed that any harm to al-Aqsa Mosque or Palestinian prisoners “will not pass without response,” calling for mass mobilization in defense of both.

He urged Palestinians in the West Bank, al-Quds, and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 to move toward al-Aqsa, while also calling for broader demonstrations across the region and globally.

He further called on Palestinians to carry out what he described as “qualitative operations” in defense of detainees, warning against internal divisions and distractions amid what he framed as a critical moment for the region.

Criticism of prisoner policies, ceasefire process

Addressing proposed measures related to Palestinian detainees, Abu Obeida described a potential “execution law” as a “stain of shame,” warning of its implications.

He said that efforts being advanced through mediators are highly dangerous, adding that the Palestinian side has fulfilled its commitments responsibly in order to remove pretexts used by the occupation.

Abu Obeida also called for pressure to ensure the zionist side adheres to the first phase of the ceasefire agreement before moving to subsequent stages, accusing it of obstructing progress and urging the United States to assume responsibility.

Iran, Lebanon, Yemen linked to Gaza

Turning to regional developments, Abu Obeida condemned attacks on Iran, drawing parallels between incidents there and events in Gaza.

He expressed support for Lebanon and its resistance, voicing confidence in Hezbollah, and reiterating calls for increased confrontation with Israeli forces.

He added that actions carried out by Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen are part of a broader continuum linked to the Gaza war, describing them as an extension of Operation al-Aqsa Flood.

Abu Obeida concluded that escalating attacks across the region signal deeper instability, asserting that such strategies will not achieve their intended goals and warning that imposed political outcomes are unlikely to succeed.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=31011 #alQassam #gaza #hamas #palestine #resistance #westAsia

Al-Qassam Brigades Spokesman Abu Obeida Applauds IRGC Strikes on zionist Colony

We look with great pride at the powerful missile strikes carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard this evening, targeting areas deep within the criminal enemy entity, using new tactics that resulted in dozens of dead and wounded. We consider these strikes a natural response not only to the Zionist-American aggression against Iran, but also to the massacres and acts of genocide committed against our Palestinian people in Gaza.

This Zionist Nazi enemy understands nothing but the language of force and retaliation in kind. Making it pay a heavy price is what will compel it to stop its aggression; without that, it will persist in its rampage and continue to single out our Arab and Islamic countries one after another.

The Islamic Republic today represents an advanced line of defense for the entire Islamic nation, and the aggressors will not succeed in breaking the will of the free and the rightful owners of the land. We renew our call to all the peoples of our nation to stand united in the face of our true enemy and to work together for our central causes, foremost among them the liberation of Palestine.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=30301 #alQassam #gaza #hamas #iran #palestine #westAsia