fetalIn the first hours after the Israeli occupation army withdrew from the Jenin camp in the northern West Bank, yesterday, Friday, (F.G.), the resistance fighter from the Jenin Battalion – and the rest of his group – were busy bidding farewell to their martyred comrades, checking on their families, then touring the camp, and reviewing the events of the days of the longest and most extensive military incursion since the invasion in the second Palestinian Intifada.
After 10 days of confrontation and resistance, the withdrawal process itself was the most difficult, as the resistance fighter (F.G.) told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “because these are usually moments when the occupation tries to achieve any spoils” by intensifying the fire and destruction.
With his experience as a resistance fighter who has 14 members of the battalion under his command, he must provide them with protection during the withdrawal, and must exercise the utmost caution and care, “because the Israeli army is accustomed to treachery. It either bombs with drones or fires bullets in a large and random manner, which may cause injuries among the resistance fighters on the rear lines.”
He added, “We have become more cautious and deliberate. We delay leaving until we are sure that the last soldier has withdrawn from all the camp’s neighborhoods, and even until we are sure that the military vehicles are far away from the entire city of Jenin.”
The number of resistance fighters has doubled.
With the repeated violent Israeli incursions, The resistance groups in Jenin camp have built up their experience over the course of 3 years. Their members say that their ability to hide has become greater, and that their methods of confrontation have changed.
The group, which began with a limited number of no more than 25 fighters, each carrying a personal weapon, announced its launch in the Jenin camp after shooting operations at the military checkpoints surrounding the city, and grew with the succession of events until it became one of the strongest Palestinian armed organizations in the northern West Bank. The number of its members multiplied dozens of times, and it expanded geographically until it reached the villages of the far west of Jenin.
(F.G.) says, “I am responsible for 14 young men, and others are responsible for a similar number, and others are responsible for a larger number. The idea of the battalion spread, and more resistance fighters joined it because of its actions on the ground, and because of the youth’s belief in the effectiveness of what we are doing.”
Every now and then, the resistance fighter who had just emerged from a long battle would glance at his radio and track the signals coming from the battalion’s surveillance groups, through which he would know the movement of aircraft in the city’s sky and the movement of military vehicles at the checkpoints.
After his short talk to Tel Aviv Tribune Net, he said that he had to hurry because the sound of the reconnaissance planes had become louder, which threatened him and the rest of the resistance fighters.
hard days
During his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, (F.G.) recounted the details of the ten days of invasion and siege that passed over Jenin and its camp, and what the resistance fighters experienced during that period of direct clashes on many occasions, luring soldiers at other times, and detonating explosive devices in military vehicles that were trying to penetrate the city streets and camp alleys.
The resistance fighter in the battalion says, “We lived the siege like the rest of the residents of the camp and the eastern neighborhood of the city, without water or electricity. They were difficult days, but we did what was necessary. The clashes extended outside the camp in several axes inside the city, as well as outside the city in the towns of Kafrdan and Sila al-Harithiya. We trapped the enemy in tight ambushes, and detonated new explosive devices with great effectiveness.”
He added, “The occupation’s goal was to reach the largest number of resistance fighters and kill them. We do not deny that we lost some of our best young men, but we did not lose them through clashes, but through bombing. If the occupier had tolerated direct confrontation, it would not have sent drones to blow up the resistance fighters.”
The fighters managed to hold out for days, and news coming from the camp confirmed that Israeli targets had been hit. The battalion members believe that, with their limited capabilities, they faced an organized army in large numbers, so they consider what happened a kind of “steadfastness and achievement.”
“We were able to damage enemy vehicles after detonating them with explosive devices that we made ourselves,” he says. “Everyone heard about the merger ambush in which the occupation admitted to killing one of its soldiers. Two young resistance fighters faced a full Israeli force and engaged them at zero distance. The occupation was unable to defeat them until the house was hit with Energa shells.”
He added, “We have gone through one stage of the confrontation this time, and we are prepared for other stages if the enemy returns to us.”
“horror camps”
This story was one of the few times that the resistance fighters from the Jenin Battalion of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, spoke during the funeral processions of the martyrs, where they are keen to be present, and their trace quickly disappears after the burial is over.
“Even if it’s a risk, we have to say goodbye to our comrades, mourn them and honor them,” F.G. says.
At the same time, this resistance fighter was providing surveillance for one of the battalion’s most prominent leaders who was in the cemetery at the same time as the martyrs’ funeral, and was also arranging his brief and quick statements to journalists.
The observer can notice people gathering around the resistance fighters and their leaders, as everyone takes the initiative to greet them and check on them.
At the cemetery gate, before leaving, where the media is prohibited from interviewing him after that, (A.A.), one of the largest and most prominent leaders of the Jenin Battalion, spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune Net about the condition of the battalion after what is considered the longest battle that the resistance fighters have fought in the Jenin camp since the escalation of Israeli incursions in 2021.
“They called them summer camps, and we called them terror camps for the occupation,” says (A.A.). “We are fine. We lost heroic, fierce mujahideen, but the enemy also lost. The situation between us and them is one of back and forth. For every mujahideen who is martyred, 10 mujahideen enter in return. The enemy must declare its loss in this battle.”
He concluded with a message: “We say to the axis of resistance and our brothers in Gaza, Lebanon and the rest of the cities of the West Bank, we are on the same path, we are fine and we will continue.”