Palestinians determined to continue resistance: Academic

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a professor at Al-Azhar University from Gaza, to discuss a report recently released by Palestinian Ministry of Health, saying at least 178 people were killed and more than 16 thousand injured by Israeli troops in 2015.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems that the situation has definitely deteriorated over the last year with the number of arrests, the number of incarceration, and of course the number of people being killed. How do you see it?

Abu Saada: Definitely. There is no question that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated in the Gaza Strip as a result of the continued Israeli siege on blockade of the Gaza Strip which has been going on for more than eight years now and also the situation has deteriorated in the West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as it was reported by you that over the past three months, only since the start of the current Palestinian Intifida, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed, about 28 of them are Palestinian children under the age of 16, and also thousands of Palestinians have been injured.

But if you want to compare 2015 to 2014, definitely the year 2014 was much more deadly because Israel initiated a war against the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 which led to the death of 2,200 Palestinians and the injury of more than 10,000 Palestinians as a result of the 51-day Israeli assaults against the Gaza Strip.

Press TV:  In general, we look at the situation that has happened in 2015, how do you see 2016? Do see this Intifada continuing?

Abu Saada:…Definitely, what took place in the West Bank over 2015 was definitely an Israeli escalation against the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Yes, there were no peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis but over the three past months, since the beginning of October 2015, we saw a lot of Israeli executions against Palestinian youth and Palestinian children in the Middle of the streets, also in terms of the number of Palestinian buildings which have been destroyed by the Israeli army and mass arrests and collective punishment against the Palestinians in the West Bank. Now it seems to me that what we have seen over the end of 2015 will definitely continue in 2016.

Palestinian youth, Palestinian resistance groups are not stepping down, are not laying down their resistance; they are definitely much more determined to continue their uprising against the Israeli occupation, to continue also their fight against Israeli settlement expansion and Israeli discrimination against the Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and also against the Palestinians in 1948. 

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