alks

here is another excerpt of an article from Mondoweiss by Shatha Hanaysha, a Palestinian journalist based in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Resistance fighters emerged from the alleyways*, dressed in dirty clothes, visibly weary-eyed despite the black masks covering their faces, still sporting their weapons and remaining on alert.

The fighters surveyed the destruction of the camp and started combing nearby shops and homes, anticipating the presence of Israeli forces remaining behind for a potential ambush, especially in abandoned areas — one fighter said that the army had done so previously in Jenin refugee camp.

“After a 12-hour invasion and the entrance of a large military force, they couldn’t do anything but vent their anger on a few homes, rocks, and trees,” a 19-year-old resistance fighter, reflecting on the situation, told me. “When they are unable, they resort to airstrikes, but we have become more aware of how to avoid them.”

Tulkarem has become a battleground in recent months as the Israeli army has taken advantage of the war on Gaza to try to eradicate the armed resistance in the West Bank. The brunt of Israel’s recent West Bank offensive has been borne by Jenin refugee camp, especially during its three-day raid last month, turning the camp into “little Gaza.” In those raids, the army was aiming to assassinate or arrest the resistance fighters in the Jenin Brigade, one of the most prominent armed groups that also functions as an umbrella organization encompassing fighters with differing factional alleigances.

Now, the Israeli army has turned its attention to Tulkarem, specifically Nour Shams refugee camp. The main target of its renewed campaign is the Tulkarem Brigade.

What sets apart the Tulkarem Brigade, according to Nour Shams residents, is what they call its “ferocity.” Resistance fighters from the group have engaged in what many consider the most intense armed confrontations in the West Bank, involving the exchange of live ammunition and the targeting of Israeli military vehicles with locally made explosives.

The Brigade frequently posts videos on its Telegram channel, highlighting the losses incurred by the Israeli army during its raids. What caught my attention during the most recent raid was that the Brigade continued to update the channel and report on the group’s operations against Israeli soldiers throughout the 36-hour raid. After the military operation concluded, the Brigade issued a statement addressed to the camp’s residents:

“Your soldiers, the Brigade’s troops, have been a thorn in the side of the Israeli army by preparing ambushes, explosive devices, and remotely detonating booby-trapped cars, resulting in casualties among their forces in several axes. We say to the enemy, who conceals what happened in the camp’s axes: your defeat and humiliation will be revealed on the camp’s soil, and tomorrow will witness a close reckoning.”

These military invasions of Nour Shams have become routine ever since October 7.

“Every day, there is an incursion,” the young resistance fighter told Mondoweiss. “However, this will not affect us or weaken our resolve. Since our childhood, we have been living under occupation, not seeing our country.”

The majority of the resistance fighters are in their late teens and twenties, meaning most of them were born during or shortly after the Second Intifada. None of them have a memory of living in a landscape not marred by checkpoints and Israeli military presence.

“Living in the camp feels like being in a prison. Before joining the resistance, I lived like any other young person — working, returning home, and spending time with friends,” the resistance fighter continued. “But what changed me and made me think about resistance was when I went outside Tulkarem. There are many checkpoints, and at the checkpoint, there is searching, humiliation, beating, and verbal abuse. The occupation forced us into this path. When we carry our weapons, we feel victorious and stop feeling humiliated. Instead, we feel pride. Every time they enter the camp, we make them leave humiliated, and that’s when we feel dignity.”

When I asked him about his dreams for the future, his answer reflected the reality imposed on him by the occupation.

“My dream is victory or following in the footsteps of my friends,” he said. “Four of my friends were martyred recently. One of my friends was killed right in front of me, and he wasn’t even a fighter — he was a civilian. God willing, we will avenge our martyrs. Their blood is not cheap.”

Another resistance member I met spoke solemnly of the fighters’ commitment to resisting even though they knew that they would die.

“The occupation will not affect us with its repeated invasions, and it will not weaken the resistance,” the fighter said with clarity. “This is a pressure tactic; the occupation itself is under pressure, and, of course, they will [keep invading] and more. They will repeat it, once, twice, and ten times, but it will not affect us.”

“We resist because this is our land, our dignity, and our honor — and for our people in Gaza, the West Bank, and the ’48 lands,” he continued. “It is imposed on us to resist…I expect that I will be martyred — today, tonight, tomorrow, at any moment. But the resistance will continue. One resistance fighter will be succeeded by another. Resistance will not end as one generation passes it to the next, and we will pass it to the generation after us.”

He was standing with his companion on the remains of an Israeli military bulldozer in the courtyard of the Nour Shams camp. The bulldozer is a testament to the fighters’ newest innovations in defending their home against the perpetually invading military force, employing IEDs to ambush Israeli soldiers and vehicles, insisting on exacting a heavy price for each Israeli onslaught.

We stand in the middle of an alleyway in the Al-Manshiyah neighborhood in Nour Shams, commonly dubbed by camp residents as the Israeli army’s “alley of horror.” The sky is concealed by plastic tarpaulin set up by the resistance fighters to prevent Israeli reconnaissance aircraft from observing, monitoring, and targeting them.

I met a 19-year-old resistance fighter following the December 31 invasion. His brother was a fighter who was killed by an Israeli airstrike during an armed confrontation.

He informs me that he left university, where he was studying dental technology, to join the resistance. He described his joy upon acquiring a weapon for resisting the occupation, likening it to the feeling of a father holding his first child.

He tells me about his martyred brother. “My relationship with my brother was more than just brotherhood,” he said. “He was my friend. He was a friend to my father, my mother, everyone. His death is what made me go down this path. It was his will — he was the one who urged me to continue the resistance.”

“I was with my brother when he was killed,” he explained. “A few others and I transported him. Initially, he had a pulse and was breathing lightly, but he was not conscious, unlike his friend, who was talking to us. But they both died afterward.”

Like all his fellow resistance fighters, he told me he dreams of liberating his homeland, that this gives him the drive to move forward.

“I am a refugee, and my dream is to return to the homeland from which we were displaced,” he elaborated. “My dream, like the dream of every free and honorable person, is to liberate Palestine from occupation. I wish I could live for just one day without occupation.”

After speaking to him, I visited his family home and met his father, who, decades ago, was also a resistance fighter in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of Fatah. He had been imprisoned for several years in Israeli jails.

“I was a resistance fighter in the First and Second Intifadas, and today my son is a resistance fighter,” he told me. “And my [other] son is a martyr and a resistance fighter as well. My children grew up to continue our mission.”

“In Palestine, we inherit resistance and the rifle, from one generation to the next,” he continued. “It’s become an instinct for those living under occupation. Resistance is present in our hearts and in our consciousness. This is what I taught my children.”

“I consider all these young people as my sons,” he added, referring to the fighters in the camp.

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* Located in the eastern part of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, nour shams translates as “the light of the sun.” Perhaps the camp gets this name because the sunrise makes its first appearance in the camp’s alleyways before it floods the rest of the world.

Nour Shams is also home to the Tulkarem Brigade [NdE: i edited this link in], an umbrella organization composed of resistance fighters with differing political affiliations, including the armed wings of Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/the-tulkarem-brigades-men-in-the-sun-resist-in-search-of-freedom/