Nablus“I did not say goodbye to or bury all those I lost,” is a phrase that Palestinians have been circulating on social media since dawn on Thursday, quoting prisoner Zakaria al-Zubaidi, after hearing the news of the martyrdom of his son Muhammad.
According to the popular phrase, Al-Zubaidi says, “My father died when I was in Jenin prison, and I heard his obituary over the mosque’s loudspeaker. My mother was martyred in the 2002 camp battle and was buried by the Red Cross. My brother Taha was buried while I was under the rubble of the camp and the destroyed houses. Then my brother Daoud was martyred, and I was unable to say goodbye to all of them. I was unable to offer my condolences. I do not know him, nor have I experienced it or practiced it personally.”
It is as if the Palestinians – with these phrases – are telling the prisoner Al-Zubaidi inside his prison that his son Muhammad has been added to the list of martyrs of his family, and that he will not see him or participate in his funeral as those who came before him.
In a violent airstrike that coincided with a large-scale Israeli army raid on the Far’a camp, the occupation’s drone aircraft targeted a group of resistance fighters in the Aqaba neighborhood in the city of Tubas, north of the West Bank, resulting in the martyrdom of 5 citizens: Muhammad al-Zubaidi, Muhammad Abu Zagha (Jenin camp), Ahmad Abu Dawas, Qusay Abdul Razzaq (Tubas city), and Muhammad Abu Juma (30 years old) from the Far’a camp, south of Tubas.
Together and under the name of the Resistance Brigades (Jenin, Tubas and Al-Far’a Camp), the five resistance fighters were martyred, even though their geographical locations were dispersed. They met in the city of Tubas inside a tin structure (barracks) that they used as a cover for themselves, so that the darkness of the pitch-black night would pass and then they would continue their resistance. However, the occupation did not give them time, so it surprised them shortly after three in the morning with its deadly missiles.
The five resistance fighters are described as the fiercest in confronting the occupation, which pursued them through many military operations, the last of which was the “summer camps” that it launched 9 days ago against the cities of Tubas, Tulkarm and Jenin.
Martyr Mohammed, son of Commander Al-Zubaidi
The martyr Al-Zubaidi belongs to a sacrificial and struggling family. He is the son of the prisoner Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the National Liberation Movement (Fatah), and one of the heroes of the “escape tunnel” from the Israeli Gilboa prison in early September 2021.
Zakaria got married in 2002 after participating in the April battle during the Israeli invasion of Jenin camp, in which he was described as one of its heroes. He had three children: Muhammad and Samira, who were named after his parents. He then had the youngest, Ayham (12 years old).
In the Fallujah neighborhood in the middle of Jenin camp, Muhammad was born in 2003. He received his basic education in schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He then moved to the Jenin government schools, where he completed high school. He later worked in vehicle glass maintenance, and remained so until the occupation pursued him a few months ago.
Mohammed continued to climb the ladder of resistance, following the example of his father and family. The occupation pursued him and failed to arrest him or even assassinate him several times. A few days ago, “Israeli soldiers stormed his family’s home in the camp and wreaked havoc and destruction on it, and threatened to kill his family,” his uncle Jamal al-Zubaidi (Abu Anton) told Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
Although they expected Mohammed to be martyred, the family was filled with grief and sadness from the first moments of his pursuit. Through a phone call from one of his friends, Abu Anton received the news of his martyrdom. He says, “My uncle Yahya and I received the news of Mohammed’s martyrdom through phone calls, and his mother found out about it through her daughter’s friend.”
Like his father, grandfather and uncles, Muhammad has been involved in the struggle since he was young. His paternal grandfather (Muhammad) died of cancer after being released from the occupation prisons in 1993. Then his grandmother Samira was martyred shortly before the invasion of Jenin camp in 2002. After that, his uncles Taha (in 2002), Jibril and Daoud were martyred, followed by his cousins Naim and Muhammad during the past three years.
Some of them were martyred or remained alive. The members of the Al-Zubaidi family spent many years of their lives in the occupation’s prisons. Zakaria is still being held in solitary confinement in Rimon Prison since his escape from Gilboa Prison. Abu Anton says, “Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, we have been sacrificing ourselves. This is the fate of people loyal to this homeland, and we will not deviate from the path.”
Following in the footsteps of Mohammed Al-Zubaidi was his friend and fellow camp resident who was martyred with him, Mohammed Nazmi Abu Zagha (23 years old), who was born in the Al-Samran neighborhood in Jenin camp and studied in its schools. Like other sons and youth of the camp, he was affected by the resistance and its men who were martyred before his eyes, including his cousin.
Founding Editors
Ahmed Fawaz Fayez Abu Dawas (24 years old), nicknamed “Al-Sardini”, was born in the city of Tubas to a struggling family. His father was a former prisoner and one of the leaders of the national movement and the Stone Intifada in the late 1980s. He studied in its schools, but did not complete his university studies as a result of his arrest by the occupation, where he spent several years in its prisons during more than one arrest.
Abu Dawas has been pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities for about 3 years, after the emergence of the Tubas Resistance Battalion, of which he was known as one of the most prominent founders. The occupation tried to arrest him through many raids on his home and the city of Tubas throughout that period, but it did not succeed.
In a press interview, Abu Dawas said, “The resistance will not stop, and we in the Tubas Battalion will not be deterred by fear or the occupation’s assassination of any of us. Our goal is martyrdom, and no matter how much Israel pursues us, it will not get to us.”
Like Abu Dawas, Israel has been pursuing his friend Qusay Majdi Abdullah Abdul Razek (26 years old) for several years, as the occupation accuses him of being one of the founders of the Tubas Resistance Battalion.
Qusay was born in Tubas among 5 brothers and sisters, where his father works in the private sector. He completed his primary and secondary school education there, and then was arrested in the occupation prisons several times. With the emergence of the resistance in the city, he joined its ranks, and the occupation pursued him and tried to arrest him many times until they were able to assassinate him at dawn today.
The educated leader
Not far from Tubas, the fifth martyr, Muhammad Salem Abu Juma (30 years old), nicknamed “Al-Ahti,” was born in the Far’a refugee camp south of the city in the Al-Nadi neighborhood. He grew up with 6 siblings (3 males and 3 females) and received his primary and secondary education in the camp’s schools. He then continued his university education in elementary education and finished his studies and worked in a supermarket. He was known for his distinguished social relationships.
While the family of the martyr Abu Jumaa denied to Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the occupation had informed them that their son was “wanted and wanted,” social media sites published pictures of the martyr, titled “Commander of the Far’a Battalion,” while activists circulated video clips of him clashing with the occupation army in several locations in the northern West Bank.
While the bodies of the martyrs of Far’a and Tubas were buried, the Al-Zubaidi family is still waiting – to bury the body of their son Muhammad, as well as the family of his friend Abu Zagha - for the occupation to withdraw from the Jenin camps.