Palestinian fighters building own weapons in Gaza, West Bank: Top Islamic Jihad official

Palestinian resistance fighters based in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have significantly improved their military capabilities and are manufacturing their own weapons to fight off the occupying Israeli regime, says a top Islamic Jihad official.

Mohammed al-Hindi, head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen news network on Tuesday that the al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of his group – has “proven that it can deter and confront the [Israeli] occupation.”

“Resistance in Palestine is now of paramount importance as it serves as an individual, collective and factional decision. The al-Quds Brigades stands at the forefront of confrontation [with the Israeli regime],” he said.

The senior Islamic Jihad official added that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu mistakenly thought he could portray an image of victory and Israeli military deterrence through the onslaught on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank, but could not reap any achievements out of the raid.

The Israeli regime conducted a major onslaught against the Jenin refugee camp on July 3, mobilizing upwards of 1,000 troops to target the resistance fighters’ “infrastructure” there.

At least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli trooper died as a result of the raid, before Israeli troops finally pulled back from Jenin following a 44-hour-long incursion.

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Hindi emphasized that “the Palestinian people currently possess good military capabilities, and are manufacturing their own weapons both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

“The battle [to free Palestine] is long and ongoing,” he said. “We know that the price for ending the occupation in the West Bank is high. We, nevertheless, believe that victory is on our side.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Hindi pointed out that the Islamic Jihad has made various efforts to bridge gaps between Fatah and Hamas resistance movements and bring them closer, and that his group welcomes any rapprochement initiative in this regard.

Officials from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority had made a pledge to release detained resistance fighters ahead of President Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to the Jenin camp, but they went back on the promise, he added.

Hindi underlined that the Islamic Jihad representatives will not attend a meeting in Egypt’s capital of Cairo next week, unless its members – imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank – are released.

On July 10, Abbas announced the extraordinary meeting of Palestinian groups’ general secretaries in Egypt.

The meeting in Cairo on July 30 is expected to address the dangers and challenges facing the Palestinian cause following the 48-hour attack by Israel on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

However, the day after President Abbas’ announcement, Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah expressed his objection to the Palestinian Authority’s arrests of movement members in the West Bank, saying these arrests hindered the success of the general secretaries meeting to be held in Cairo.

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