Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins Palestinian political parties, resistance movements and prisoners’ organizations in saluting the martyr Sheikh Mustafa Mohammed Abu Ora, 63, a leader in Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, from Aqaba, Tubas, occupied Palestine, who was martyred in Zionist prisons on Thursday, 25 July 2024. This makes Sheikh Abu Ora the 19th documented martyr inside the Zionist prisons since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide in Gaza, and the 255th documented martyr of the prisoners’ movement. However, there are dozens (at least 36) of Palestinian detainees who have been martyred under severe torture and abuse after being abducted from Gaza by the genocidal occupation army in the past ten months, whose identities have been hidden from the Palestinian, Arab and international public.
The martyrdom of Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora comes as part and parcel of a policy of assassination and “slow killing” used by the occupation, targeting imprisoned Palestinians for death through medical neglect, torture, inhuman treatment and abuse. It underlines the urgency of the Palestinian resistance’s commitment to the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, as the occupation is waging its genocide not only in Gaza but inside the prisons of the Zionist regime.
Tonight, the people of Tubas are marching to honor his memory and demand the liberation of all prisoners and all of Palestine.
The martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Ora was announced after he was transferred from Ramon prison, where he was jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention alongside over 3,000 fellow Palestinian prisoners, to Soroka Hospital. Abu Ora has been seized by the Zionist regime on multiple occasions since 1990 and suffered from severe health problems. He spent a total of over 12 years inside Zionist prisons and has been held in detention currently since 30 October 2023.
One of his sons, Zain al-Din Abu Ora, is currently also detained inside the Zionist prisons. His brother, Allam Abu Ora, was assassinated by Zionist forces during the great popular Intifada of 1987-1993.
Married and the father of seven children, he was systematically denied access to meaningful medical aid, at the same time as the over 9,700 Palestinian prisoners as a whole, hostages of the Zionist regime, have been subjected to severe mass torture of all forms, systematic starvation and denial of food and basic needs, and ongoing medical neglect and mistreatment.
It should be noted that the Zionist prisons are presided over by the notorious fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said on 1 July that Palestinian prisoners “should be killed with a shot to the head, and the bill to execute Palestinian prisoners must be passed in the third reading in the Knesset…Until then, we will give them minimal food to survive.”
Just last year, on 20 July 2023, Sheikh Abu Ora was abducted by the Palestinian Authority after raising his voice to protest the PA’s ongoing policy of political detention and persecution of Palestinian resistance fighters, part of its so-called “security coordination” with the Zionist regime. “He said that these arrests are a betrayal of the blood of the martyrs, the groans of the prisoners, and the pain of the wounded, and called on PA Forces members to rebel against this anti-liberation campaign.” Sheikh Abu Ora was released after mass popular pressure and his hospitalization due to his sensitive health condition. However, his detention is yet another illustration of the role of the Palestinian Authority as an ally of and collaborator with the Zionist regime and U.S./European imperialism, as well as the “revolving door” of imprisonment that includes both PA jails and Zionist prisons.
Sheikh Abu Ora was also one of the deportees of Marj al-Zuhour. On 17 December 1992, the Zionist regime attempted to exile 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials and members to Marj al-Zuhour in southern Lebanon following a resistance operation by the Al-Qassam Brigades in which it abducted and killed a Zionist occupation soldier. They later all returned to occupied Palestine, and the attempted deportation held severe repercussions for the occupation regime as they returned stronger and more prominent leaders of the liberation struggle.
Among the deportees of Marj al-Zuhour were Dr. Abdelaziz Al-Rantisi, Sheikh Youssef Sarkji, Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, Ismail Haniyeh, and a number of other prominent leaders. The deportation to Marj al-Zuhour created a strong basis for alliance between Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance movement, and Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement. Leaders of the resistance movement became personally acquainted, sharing experiences, tactics and strategies in the liberation movement. In short, the deportation eventually advanced the collective resistance strategy of unity of all fronts, forming a strong alliance that today is stronger than ever.
The importance of this strategy is apparent today in the resistance to the genocide being carried out by the Israeli regime in Gaza; the resistance confronting this genocide is not only Palestinian, but Lebanese, where the Resistance continues to strike powerful blows on the northern border, emptying it of occupation soldiers and settlers; Yemeni, where the people, armed forces and AnsarAllah movement have shut down shipping to the Zionist Eilat port, causing its bankruptcy; Iraqi, where resistance forces are cooperating through joint operations with Yemen; and throughout the region, stretching through Syria and Iran and beyond.
Resistance News Network reported:
Earlier this year, when Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora heard about the martyrdom of Omar Daraghmeh, a fellow leader in Hamas from Tubas, he posted the following words on social media:
The eye sheds tears, and the heart grieves, and we are saddened by your departure, dear one.
Whenever I called him on the phone, after exchanging greetings, he would say, “Hello, dear. Farewell to you today, dear one.” We will not hear this from you again except in the eternal gardens alongside the beloved Mohammed, peace be upon him.
Today, you have risen as a martyr in the prisons of the oppressive occupation under deliberate medical neglect and a criminal assassination. The martyr prisoner Omar Daraghmeh Abu Al-Nimr. May Allah have mercy on him and accept him in the highest ranks with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. How excellent are those as companions. Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs against all the oppressors and conspirators. O Allah, take the severest revenge on them and save Your believing servants.
Yesterday, Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora mourned the martyrdom of his companion and friend, Omar Daraghmeh, and today he reunites with him in the same way Omar was martyred.
The assassination by slow killing of Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora, of course, comes one day after war criminal Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s infamous speech to the US Congress, in which he was met with dozens of standing ovations as he demanded more weapons to continue the genocide, attacked the popular movements in the United States demanding an end to the genocide, and demanded war on Iran. This underlines that the torture, abuse and assassination of Palestinian prisoners, like the entire Zionist genocidal project for the past 10 months and the past 76 years, is equally a crime of US imperialism and their fellow imperialist powers, including Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Italy and others.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora and extends its condolences to his family, his fellow strugglers, and the Palestinian people, including his imprisoned son Zein al-Din.
We reiterate our words upon the assassination of the martyr Saleh al-Arouri: From Saleh al-Arouri to Fathi Shiqaqi, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Abu Jihad, Kamal ‘Udwan, Mohammed al-Najjar, Basil al-Kubaisi, Kamal Nasser, Wadie Haddad, Ghassan Kanafani, Mohammed Boudia, Basil al-Araj, Tariq Izzedine to Samir Kuntar; the Zionist regime relies on the assassination weapon against the liberation movement. In occupied Palestine, in Lebanon, in France, in Belgium, in Greece; this policy reflects the presence of the Palestinian people and movement everywhere in exile and diaspora. It marks a failed attempt to suppress the Palestinian and Arab people’s unquenchable will by targeting leaders, scholars, resisters and strategists.
This assassination policy includes the attacks on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, from Ibrahim al-Rai, killed under torture, to the systematic denial of medical care to Sheikh Khader Adnan, martyred after 86 days of hunger strike, to the killing of dozens of imprisoned Palestinians behind bars since 7 October 2023.
As has been the case for so many such criminal assassinations, they will not achieve the goal of killing the resistance, nor the Palestinian and Arab revolution against Zionism and imperialism. They will only inspire greater resistance and struggle toward the defeat of the Zionist regime, the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and the liberation of the Arab people and the region from imperialism and its agents and collaborators.
