On Saturday, 17 August, Zionist forces assassinated two Palestinian resistance fighters in Jenin camp with a drone strike on their vehicle, the martyrs Raafat Dawasi and Ahmed Abu Ora of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement. This was the latest in a series of drone-driven assassinations aiming to target the leadership of the growing and strengthening resistance movement throughout the West Bank of occupied Palestine, which despite the martyrdom of many fighters and leaders, has remained consistently and, indeed, increasingly, capable of confronting the invading occupation forces and driving them out of Palestine’s refugee camps, cities and villages.
Raafat Dawasi was a leader and fighter in the Al-Qassam Brigades in Silat al-Harthiyeh village in Jenin governorate, while the leader and fighter Ahmed Abu Ora was from Aqaba village in Tubas governorate. In a statement following their assassination, the Al-Qassam Brigades noted the significant role of both in developing and leading the current stage of armed resistance in the West Bank:
“As the Qassam Brigades exalt its martyred fighters, it reveals their significant jihadist role, where they were responsible for planning and executing several high-profile operations, most notably the operation to blow up the Namer vehicle in Jenin on June 27, 2024, the complex triple ambush near the village of Al-Mutila on July 23, 2024, and the Al-Aghwar Jordan Valley operation on August 11, 2024.”
Both of the martyrs were repeatedly pursued by the occupation forces, yet they were unable to arrest or assassinate them for months; they pursued Ahmed Abu Ora for a year and a half. His brother, Mohammed, is imprisoned by the Zionist regime. Another of his brothers, Musharraf, had been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for 40 days, under its “security coordination” regime with the Zionist entity, in order to coerce his brother to turn himself in. He was finally released only after Ahmed’s martyrdom. At the same time they abducted his brother, the PA posted photos of resistance weapons they had confiscated when they failed to capture Ahmed. Amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the daily assaults of settler colonialists rampaging through the West Bank, and 76 years of violent Zionist/US imperialist colonialism in Palestine, the PA continues to act not in defense of the Palestinian people but to suppress and undermine their heroic resistance that is, nonetheless, growing and blossoming on a daily basis.
This reality was confirmed today, when a Palestinian resisting youth near Qalqilya at the so-called “Kedumim” settlement confronted an colonial settler security guard with a hammer, killing the guard (an active settlement guard and reservist IOF soldier who had reportedly been part of the genocidal invasion of Gaza) and taking his weapon, retreating safely from the scene; only days after over 100 settlers in the area invaded the village of Jit and launched a pogrom, killing a Palestinian, wounding many more and damaging homes and property. Rather than terrifying the Palestinian people into submission, the settlers’ attack – watched over by the IOF the whole time – only further lit the flames of resistance. And this was further confirmed once again in the mass marches and funerals in Jenin, Silat al-Harthiya and Aqaba for the martyrs Raafat Dawasi and Ahmed Abu Ora, with pledges to continue their path of resistance until liberation.
In fact, it is because of the strength of the resistance on the ground that the occupation has increasingly resorted to drone attacks; here, it is worth noting that Elbit Systems produces 85% of the Zionist entity’s drone fleet. As this is not a Zionist genocide alone, but a Zionist-imperialist genocide, with the full backing and support of the United States and its imperialist partners, this is fully demonstrated in Elbit’s intertwined relationships throughout the imperial core. Canadian top bank Scotiabank has been pushed to halve its stake in Elbit twice in the past 11 months; while claiming that the broad protest movement has had no effect, Scotiabank branches across the country have been repeatedly shut down due to protests and actions against the bank’s investment in Palestinian death and Zionist warmongering, and Scotiabank sponsorship has been rejected and challenged at cultural events across the country.
Meanwhile, Elbit’s office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been essentially shut down due to the direct actions of Palestine Action US and the mass campaigns of BDS Boston. As the Palestine Solidarity Working Group noted, “The local movement against Elbit put the idea of ‘diversity of tactics’ into action, deploying weekly pickets and canvasses, home demos, secondary/tertiary targeting, and militant direct action and property damage to build pressure on Elbit and its enablers.In response to arrests and state repression, the movement did not back down. Its militancy is what gave the movement teeth. We encourage other locales to learn from the successful tactics used in Cambridge to go on the offensive against their local police/military infrastructure.” This campaign is an example for people everywhere seeking to confront the physical presence of the Zionist-imperialist war machine in their cities.
Of course, this campaign and many others build on the exceptional work of Palestine Action in Britain, which has taken the lead in shutting down two Elbit sites and causing significant damage to many others. Palestine Action’s direct actions have expanded the boundaries of the boycott movement and caused immediate and material damage to the Zionist entity’s drone factories.
The armed resistance on the ground in Palestine, throughout all of the land of occupied Palestine from the river to the sea, confronting the genocidal invaders everywhere from besieged Gaza to every inch of Palestine, is accompanied by their brothers and comrades in the regional resistance forces, as Hezbollah empties the north of occupied Palestine of its soldiers and settlers, as the Yemeni government, people, armed forces and AnsarAllah movement shut down the supply lines of genocide in the Red Sea, as the resistance in Iraq confronts the U.S. occupiers, as steadfast Syria holds together the spine of resistance, as Iran nurtures the broad resistance of the region and prepares for its own great response.
The battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood has exposed before all the true face of Zionism and imperialism – the US sending its navy and billions upon billions of dollars in weaponry to “defend” its illegitimate colonial project in occupied Palestine, the German police beating and attacking people in the streets calling for an end to genocide, the French state seeking to imprison hundreds for expressing support for the Palestinian resistance, all while they arm, fund and defend the Zionist-imperialist genocide in occupied Palestine. It has also exposed before all the true heroism, dignity, dedication, commitment and self-sacrifice of the Resistance, their faith and love, for their people, their land and for God, for justice and liberation.
And for those of us in the imperial core the choice is clear: this is the time to build our resistance, to be a worthy participant in the struggle, to confront the imperialists and Zionists, and to hasten the defeat of imperialism and Zionism and the victory of Palestine and of the Resistance, and the crumbling of the temporary genocidal entity. The task is before us: to build the international popular cradle of the Resistance everywhere, and to advance that victory. Let us take it up.
Glory to the martyrs; freedom to the prisoners; victory to the Resistance; and return and liberation to Palestine, from the river to the sea.
