Prominent voice of Gaza resistance killed by Israel, with Jon Elmer

This is the resistance report for day 531. I'm John Elmer reporting. It is March 20th today. Um the ceasefire has officially ended as you have been hearing throughout this program, the electronic intifada live stream. Um but we've been reporting for the all of the past 9 weeks that the ceasefire was being structurally violated by Israel all the way throughout more than a thousand violations. More than 150 Palestinians were killed on a day-by-day basis throughout throughout this the so quote-unquote ceasefire, the ceasefire that Israel uses like they did in in Lebanon to hold on to territory that they couldn't capture during the battles on the ground. Um On March 2nd Prime Minister Netanyahu announced the blockade, the total sealing of Gaza that Al-Bakr was just talking about that has prevented more than 10,000 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip along with 850 fuel trucks. And now those numbers are agreed upon numbers from the first phase of the ceasefire that was conditioned upon the return of Israeli captives. So those Israeli captives are at home. Um they're back in their homes and the vile the agreement that Israel signed in order to get them there has been violated structurally by Israel. And those 850 fuel trucks are the fuel trucks that are needed for the ambulances, for the civil defense crews to deal with what is now begun again. Um the full-scale massacre of people in Gaza. The war resumed hand in hand with the United States attack on Yemen. Um Israeli officials and American officials both said that and the Israeli officials that said that said it under a military sensor. So it's obviously something that they wanted their population and the world to know that it was hand in hand. Benjamin Netanyahu said from now on negotiation will take place only under fire. I will cover Yemen in a few moments, but first let's start with Gaza because on Monday at 2:00 a.m. local time Israel carried out a simultaneous surprise attack in the middle of the night hitting 80 civil and government infrastructure targets in less than 10 minutes. The targets were human targets and physical targets. It was a wave of assassinations against senior government officials in the Hamas government, in the municipal government, in the Politburo, people who live out in the open who are administering the territory. This is not some kind of intelligence coup that the Israelis pulled off. It's a heinous massacre, a cowardly massacre even by Israel's standards to strike at 2:00 a.m. without any warning while people are at home with these and their families were massacred alongside these government officials. In many cases elected government officials that run the ministries, all of the key ministries in the Gaza Strip. And Israel said that's what they were doing. They were targeting government ministers. And there's reasons why this at this particular moment why these attacks are particularly cowardly and particularly appalling. And it's because people have returned back to their homes such as they are in the fraction of the homes that remain in Gaza. People are concentrated in those homes in larger numbers. Um they're struck in the middle of the night at 2:00 a.m. in the morning and that's why you have the death tolls like Nora reported in the newscast off the top with hundreds of children because that's the proportion in Gaza of the child population. And so just brutal massacres. They're very even after 530 days of watching this these these particular attacks this week have been appalling. I just wanted to say that before we get into the resistance report. Abu Obeida today after rockets were fired out of Gaza for the first time, the first time that there has been a breach of the ceasefire by the Palestinian side because Israel said the ceasefire is over. Before that there was zero violations by Palestinians. In fact they actually were accommodating to Israel's demands throughout the prisoner exchange, the way the prisoners were released. They responded to that. They responded by having constantly be involved in negotiations even though those negotiations were used as tools to start the war again. Hamas participated in those negotiations in good faith. Well this morning they fired for the first time rockets on Tel Aviv. They fired M90s from Khan Yunis from southern Gaza. And Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, said we salute our sincere brothers in Yemen for their honorable stance and direct support for the people in Gaza. Despite the heavy price they are paying for their loyalty to Palestine. Today Yemen's missiles intersected in the air with Gaza's missiles over the skies of Tel Aviv confirming that Gaza is not alone and that behind it are free men and a free nation who will not surrender to its arrogant enemies. As I said, I'll talk about Yemen coming up, but we're going to focus on Gaza here. And like I said, Netanyahu and the security establishment made clear that negotiations will now be under fire. And the death toll this week is climbing well over 500 now. More than 400 of those were on the first day of the the massacres that were tied to assassinations. Also yesterday the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on the eastern edge of Gaza pushing expanding their buffer zone. They moved into the Netzarim Corridor again cutting off Salahuddin Road, the main north-south thoroughfare through Gaza again as Nora reported. So that is 1/3 of the Netzarim Corridor has been reoccupied. And the targets have been on school shelters, people in their homes, and of course in tents as well because government officials are living in tents as well. Just like the doctors, just like the journalists, just like the aid workers that you see living in tents, living in those tent communities. But one of the assassinations that took place was of Abu Hamza. We can pull up Abu Hamza here. His name is Naji Abu Saif. He is the spokesperson for Saraya al-Quds Islamic Jihad. Israel did not take credit for this assassination. Not clear from their perspective. They were bragging about massacring government officials. But the Islamic Jihad movement came out and right away acknowledged the death of Abu Hamza who people will be familiar with, who spoke throughout this war. And this is the the notice from Islamic Jihad. It says with great pride and honor the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine announces to our great Palestinian people and the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation the martyrdom of Naji Abu Saif, Abu Hamza, the spokesperson for Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Islamic Jihad. He was assassinated by the criminal army in a treacherous attack that targeted his family and his brother's family in their homes. The media knew and the people knew the martyr as a voice of the resistance, a fearless and eloquent and bold and heroic um known for his bold and heroic stances expressing the resistance and defending the rights of the Palestinian people. This treacherous and hateful assassination perpetrated by the criminal entity was part of a brutal series of massacres that have shed the blood of hundreds of innocent including children and women over the past few hours. This massacre supported and encouraged and funded by the United States administration and met with helpless and cowardly silence from the world will only increase our resolve and determination and perseverance in defending our people and our rights and the goals of the aggression will be completely thwarted. So Abu Hamza has been an articulate spokesperson for the resistance for many years. He particularly through the Great March of return that happened in 2018 and 2019 when civil actions at the fence surrounding Gaza um went on for more than a year and a half. He spoke through all of those. And of course he spoke through all three of the wars in the last 3 years that include 2021's Guardian of the Walls. 2022 there was a rocket war that was just Islamic Jihad versus the Israeli military and he spoke consistently through that. And all throughout the war. If we look at this next slide, this is his last speech where he January 21st after the ceasefire went into effect um gave a speech that is very typical of the kind of speech he gave. I'll I'll read it to you in full. The enemies The enemy's barbaric war against our people is not a reaction to a military operation, but rather reflects a pre-meditated intent of war and genocide against civilians deprived of their basic necessities of life. We began our battle by relying on God, leaving behind our homes, our families, and everything we owned. We understood the difficulty and responsibility placed upon us as the resistance by our people, knowing that we are confronting the occupation alongside a group of believers in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran on behalf of a million and a billion and a half Muslims. Our religious and national duty requires us to confront the occupation by all means and with absolute trust in God to guide and support us. From the beginning of this battle, our slogan has been, "No matter how long the war lasts, we are its soldiers." We have prepared for it We have prepared for it a generation of strong, moral, and educational foundations, and behind us stand our heroic people whose steadfastness alongside us is unparalleled in history, and we owe to them immense obligations. We salute the steadfastness of the people in Lebanon. Um he's he uh shouts out uh Hassan Nasrallah and the martyred brothers martyred brothers in the fight in Lebanon. He talks about Yemen and salutes Abdul Malik al-Houthi for their position with their missiles and drones. Um he thanks the Iraqi resistance and the Iranian and the Iranians for Operation True Promise 1 and 2, and he did this throughout the war. Talking about the unity of fields, talking about the multiple fronts uh in the war, and of course his voice his powerful voice was alongside um some significant resistance videos. I'm going to show you one here where he says, "You little mercenaries without conscience or justice, we will destroy your ambitions on the land of Gaza just as we just as we destroyed your ancestors' ambitions on the walls of Acre. God is our witness." Um let's take a look at that one. It's number Let's take a listen to it. It's number three. Again, so he's addressing the Israelis and he says, "You little mercenaries without conscience or justice, we will destroy your ambitions on the land of Gaza." Um your designs on Gaza. And this is operation was a remarkable operation. People may remember we broke it down uh at length on the show uh back in uh late January, early February. This is a the use of an unexploded Israeli-American bomb that their engineering units rewired and detonated against an Israeli military position there. That decoy that you saw, the RPG fire was the decoy, um and then the building was detonated. So that was the first of the return to sender operations that became famous throughout the war, and it's obvious what you're watching on your screens if you're listening at home. Uh you're seeing a devastating military operation reusing unexploded ordinance, which is something that uh buoyed the resistance throughout this battle. Um and Abu Hamza's words were strong and fitting for that operation. We look at the next one. We have another one here. Um before that came on the eve of uh the battle in Rafah at the end of the battle in Khan Yunis, um where he addresses uh Well, we we might be just pulling that up. Let me tell you one thing in the in the meantime. In March 2024, he said, um this is something that he put throughout all of his speeches. Um He says, "We say to our people that the resistance shares with you all the circumstances you are experiencing, and we will later reveal scenes of this battle and the defense of our fighters in the alleys of terror and the fields of martyrdom. We say to our people that you are the symbol of dignity, pride, and the crowns on our heads. We will not relinquish your rights no matter how much we share the pain and wounds with you. We will be able to continue this battle no long no matter how long it lasts." Um so that next uh video from Rafah, if we could pull that one up here. So as the international uh media and local media was praying for the uh invasion of Rafah, this is the ending battles uh in Khan Yunis, um which was the battle before Rafah, and uh they ended this battle by putting out this video of a remarkable operation, um multi-pronged complex operation, RPG fire at a Israeli position in behind that rock in behind the uh tank that you see there, and then the IED that was set up and then detonated versus the tank. Um so it hits the position, and then you're going to see here it hit the tank uh and explode. And this was a strong message to the Israelis um who were about to invade uh Rafah, and he says uh in that audio you heard, he said, "Our presence on the battlefield on the cusp on the cusp of the seventh month carries an important message, more eloquent than rockets and missiles." That was in the original uh speech. More eloquent than rockets and missiles was not in that video, but it's in the original speech. Um and he goes on to say, "It states that we reject occupation, and we will not allow it to establish itself on the land of Gaza, and the enemy considers the idea and if the enemy considers the idea of staying and invading Rafah, he must heed this message well." So that was um the kind of way that he was used throughout this war at critical moments coming out, unifying his people, speaking for all factions, speaking for all Palestinians, um and speaking with a revolutionary um armed struggle uh primacy in what he was saying, always putting the people first, saying that they're in the same trench. Um let's look at number four tomorrow. Number four B, um you can see that that um that the unity of fields is uh trans it goes across um both uh international, where he talks about Yemen, and he talks about the Iraqi resistance, and he talks about Lebanon, um but uh coming up here, we're going to show you um that the um Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades um uh Oh, oh there it is. Perfect. Thank you. Excellent, Tamara. Um so the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the leftist PFLP, um they came out uh and issued a um a martyr poster for him um for the joint operations room and the solidarity across factions. You have the the leftists and the Islamists communicating here. They said, "The martyr leader Abu Hamza left his mark in the field of military media resistance, and his presence instilled fear and terror in the crumbling occupation entity. He was a model of the resistance fighter, not he was uncompromising, always on the front lines of confrontation. Despite the immense pain of losing Abu Hamza, who never submitted, we confirm that his loss will only increase our determination and steadfastness to continue on the path of martyrs uh in the struggle and fight until every last drop of blood to fulfill and complete our liberation and the expulsion of the occupation from all of our Palestinian land and the restoration of our people's stolen rights and the recovery of our lands um and the avenging of the blood of our martyrs." So he's speaking um to all factions all all factions uh saluted him, and you can see there uh in that photo from the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades poster just how young Abu Hamza was, and to be speaking for so many years um and so effectively at that young age. Um this is significant loss to the resistance um the resistance movements in Gaza and um part of that series of assassinations uh in Gaza this week.