Qassam Brigades commander assassinated in Gaza City, with Jon Elmer

You are watching and listening to the electronic inifat. I am John Elmer. This is the resistance report for day 84 of Israel's genocide in Gaza. It's also day 70 of the ceasefire such as it is. I am reporting this on December the 18th. Ceasefire such as it is because uh 813 violations, 25 per day, 392 air strikes, 400 people killed, 1,000 plus wounded. 95% of them civilians. Um Hamas says that they have submitted a detailed report on all violations to the mediators and the joint committee monitoring the ceasefire. So that's the civil military coordination center that central command uh United States central command soldiers are operating in southern Israel. Doesn't seem to be having any effect on uh Israeli ceasefire violations. Um but let's take a look at um the main mechanism by which these um the death and destruction uh in Gaza is happening. It's because of this yellow line that Maha was talking about. Uh if you didn't uh hear that report um you should go check it out uh in the video section um that was just before us on the show and Maha Husini from uh Euromemed they've been doing incredible work on this. So I just wanted to give a few maps here that I have shown previously, but I'm going to show them all together just to show you. So this is the first map that was released. This is the only map that people in Gaza have um been given about where the yellow line is. Um Maha talked about the yellow blocks and I've reported on the yellow line a few times. So we know that there are yellow blocks that mark this line. Um, but this line really comes from, if we look at the next slide, they came from Trump's back of the napkin uh plan here that he and uh Steve Witco came up with while they were golfing. And basically, the map line looks more or less like it was drawn on the back of a of a napkin on a golf cart. um or that it was negotiated between Gulf uh leaders who are Wickoff um uh Wickoff's business uh and Jared Kushner's business uh associates. um it does not uh reflect on the ground um any kind of detail or fidelity to um the reality on the ground which has made it of course um a very deadly spot for Palestinians and it's the as I said the main mechanism of destruction and death because they're shooting and killing people along that line but also on the eastern side of that yellow line the Israeli military continues to destroy in the same way that it was during Operation Gideon's chariots. They're destroying entire neighborhoods rowby row, house by house um on the eastern side of those lines. They're also setting up military bases um outposts in those uh in that eastern area buffer zone. It's also in that area where the um IDFbacked militias um that are attempting to um sow discord. I mean, the Israeli um Israeli black militias, they do not have any capacity to overthrow the Casam government. They are just to cause uh chaos and destruction. And earlier this week, there was a an assassination carried out by their forces, by their collaborator forces uh inside the yellow line. So, they're able to move across that line um and and carry out attacks. So, that is the Trump line. We'll look at the next one. um shows this was the one that I showed you um that was up on the wall at the uh civil military uh coordination center in southern Israel. And again, you see that map looks quite a bit different than the first two maps that we see. Um and then this next one is the zoom in on the one that I showed you a couple weeks ago. Uh and again you can see the areas um in that are the most important are different and those areas are in the populated areas in the north um across Gaza City um up to Jabalia in the north. Um that these are neighborhoods where hundreds of thousands of people live. Um and so it it's very significant that this line has been drawn and um earlier this month uh during a visit to uh Bethanon uh and Jabalia the Israeli chief of staff uh General Lieutenant General Al Zamir said that the yellow line demarcating uh the Israeli military's withdrawal as part of the ceasefire is quote a new borderline. Um the chief of staff said, "We will control parts of the Gaza Strip and stand along those strategic lines." The yellow line is a new borderline, a forward defensive line for the communities um he means the communities of the Gaza envelope, the settlement communities on the outside uh of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli communities, and an offensive line. So it's the position um that they can use to jump off uh for military operations or by their collaborators as I uh as I described. Um, if we take a look uh at the next map, you can see here that the BBC has uh showed us this uh right after the um ceasefire agreement came into effect that the yellow line that was drawn on those maps such as it was, it was still not the line that was being used for these yellow blocks. Um this is from October from BBC Verify and they show 290 m. There's places that it's up to two kilometers from the border uh over that the yellow line is uh squeezing the Gaza Strip. Um and Army radio pointed out that uh this is a new reality, but the new reality shows that Israel uh Israel's plans to disarm uh Hamas through disarm Kasam through uh an international force or some force that's not the Israelis um is a pipe dream. According to Army Radio, Hamas has indeed agreed to relocate all living and arrested prisoners, but this does not in any way indicate intentions to relinquish control over security or the resistance weapons. So, that's how the Israeli military sees it. Um, and I think that's a pretty accurate description by the way the resistance sees it as well. there's not going to be a disarming um of the resistance. Something that the Israelis could not do in two years, some other force that doesn't exist um and isn't even in a blueprint form yet uh is not going to be doing that work. Um they just want to show you a couple updated yellow line maps. We're at number five here. And here you can see um this is from uh o open source work done by Chris Oc. Um, and it using these maps, you can see in the upper left corner, you can see one of the yellow blocks in the inset picture. You can see where the yellow line is on the map. But this map, this satellite mapping shows you how many houses are in that area. So, the pin that's at the bottom at the center of this map, the yellow pin shows where that inset block is. And you can see that it's uh 10 houses deep from the yellow line. Um, and that makes that entire neighborhood thousands of people uh whose houses are actually inside the yellow line but are not because of the way that Israel has moved these blocks. And these three, there's one more um number six we can show you. You can also see that again. You can see on this map the red side is on the eastern side of the yellow line and you can see all of those houses full neighborhoods like in Shijaya um across Satun um in Jabalia. These are uh built up areas where thousands of people are living. Shaya itself is um one of the largest neighborhoods in all of Gaza and it's basically been cut in half. Um and that's what we're seeing here. And you can see the pin uh the yellow pin marks um along this map showing uh where those yellow blocks are. And again, it's the same as the previous map. You're seeing dozens of houses deep. Um which means thousands, if not tens of thousands of people um out of their homes uh because of this line. There's one more map that just shows um I just wanted to bring these maps in because they show you the houses instead of just showing Gaza as a map uh where nobody lives. This map shows you um the number of houses, the number of families um that are being impacted by uh this yellow line squeeze um that's been going on. So uh that is just to complement what Maha was talking about in uh her interview from Gaza. Um let's take a look now at number eight. Um this week um the senior commander um of the head of military manufacturing for the Kasam brigades, Rah Sad was assassinated um outside of the ceasefire agreement. Obviously a blatant violation. in his car uh um that he was in along with three associates was hit by a drone strike on December 13th along the coastal road in Gaza City. Um the Israelis attempted to say that it was a response to the ceasefire to um yellow line violations, but that quickly fell away um when it was understood that this was an strike of opportunity. They've been attempting to assassinate Riad Sad for about 30 years. He's a key commander that his life really mirrors the growth of the Casam brigades from uh the first inifat when they were founded as a group of operatives um to the second Inifatada where they started organizing more along a military lines and having concentrated military plans to drive the settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip which eventually happened after the second inif during the 2005 Israeli disengagement. Um and after the time that Israel disengaged from Gaza, this is really the period of time um that Ryad Assad was uh a key figure in developing the uh systematized programmatized uh weapons development um weapons development and military development to turn the Cassam brigades from a group of operatives to um effectively uh a national army. A couple uh statements from uh a statement from the Casam Brigades uh about the assassination said, "With all pride, honor, defiance, and defiance, the Isadine Alasam Brigades exalt the ascension of one of its great men, a commander from its general military council, the martyed commander, Mujahed Rahed Sad, uh head of military manufacturing. Our great commander departed after a long and impressive journey of sacrifice and resistance crowned by his leadership of the Alcasam manufacturing system which formed one of the most important pillars of the creativity of our resistance on October 7th and then its infliction of heavy losses on the occupation army and in confronting its aggression against our people during the battle of Alexa flood in Gaza by assassinating our leaders and our people and its daily and continuous aggression against our people in various areas of the Gaza Strip. The Nazi enemy has crossed all red lines. It is disregarding Trump's plan and Trump and the mediators must bear responsibility for these dangerous transgressions uh and this repeated rampage against our people and our resistance fighters as well as our leaders. Our right to respond to the occupation's aggression is guaranteed. We have the right to res we have the right to defend ourselves by any means necessary. And we announced today, this was the day after um Gad Sad was killed. They said, "We announced today that the Alkasam leadership has appointed a new commander to carry out the tasks previously held by our martyed commander." Hamas also had a statement that said, "As we bid farewell today to the mujahed leader Rah Sad, we bid farewell to a jihadist journey that spanned more than 35 years during which he was at the forefront, present in the fields of resistance work, contributing to the building and development of the Casam Brigade's capabilities and enhancing its qualitative strength. He held pivotal leadership positions and played central roles in the path of the Palestinian resistance. This journey began with the launch of the first inifatada in 1987 and escalated through the successive stages of confrontation and challenge reaching its peak in al ax flood for which the martyed leader Rad Assad played a central role in its preparation in its building plans to confront the occupation forces during a comprehensive war of annihilation that lasted for 2 years after the October 7th attack. Um throughout his long journey, the martyr was subjected to several assassination attempts which only increased his steadfastness and determination. For him they were nothing but additional fuel to continue the resistance project and challenge the enemy and cling to the oper to the option of confrontation until the end. So those are the statements from the Cassam brigades and from Hamas on his um assassination. We can look at the next slide here. um because the Israelis believed that he was a central figure in um uh creating in writing and detailing the document that the Israeli security establishment calls Jericho's wall which was the October 7th plan uh in all its detail the details of the rockets and the blinding operation that was used to drive soldiers into their bases to allow the breaching operation which was trained for uh above outside in the open under Yaha Sinoir um to breach the wall and have the fighters uh cross over and dismantle the Gaza division. Um the plan that he wrote was very successful in that sense. Um but the history of this leader um is really important because he began during the second inifada to work with Adnan Algul um to put one gun in the hand to put weapons in the hands of every fighter that your resistance is only as large um as the number of fighters that are armed. And that project began in the second inif. And of course it developed greatly after the Israelis left Gaza in 2005. um and the years of war between then in 2006 there was the war um Gilad Shalit after the capture of Gilead Shalit 2008 2009 cast led 2012 um every couple of years there's a war um during this time all throughout it uh Kasam was developing its capacity and Rad Sad was a key leader in that he was a founding member of the uh Nukba forces the elite naval commando um that the Cassam brigade started to build out in the uh 2010s. That's after uh he had a leadership position. He was the head of the Gaza City Brigade during the um Inifada and the years after the Inifat and between 2014 and 2021, he was Kassan Brigade's operations chief. These are top military positions. um after which he took over as the head of military manufacturing. And of course, people who are familiar with the resistance report know the military uh manufacturing is what you've been watching for the past 2 years from the resistance making weaponry um testing it, developing it, putting it into service. This is a project that has been going on in the Casam Brigades um for more than 25 years. and Ryad Assad was at um the central was a central figure in uh that development in the statement that the um Israelis released. Actually there's one more slide. Is there one more slide of him? Yeah. On stage here uh in 2001 after um operation guardians of the wall um attack. Um, so Shabbach said of uh of Rahad Sad that SAD is responsible for the deaths of many soldiers who were killed in Gaza as a result of explosive devices manufactured by the weapons production uh headquarters during the war. And that is a key uh aspect that we have been watching for the past two years. The way to use that effective weaponry um to not to reinvent the wheel but to perfect the basics um of anti-tank weapons um uh both um IEDs and uh rockets uh the Yasine 105. Um both of those, the Shawad uh EFP and the Yasin 105, they were in development since the second inifada and were perfected in the years before um the Alex flood operation. And so Rahad was one of the key men in deciding when the moment was right uh when the weaponry was developed enough when they had enough stockpiles um that they could defend themselves for um a prolonged war which is what we saw no weapons um they didn't run out of weapons they were able to defend themselves uh all the way till the end of the war to the point where Israel did not want to invade uh Gaza city because of the preparations there in Gaza city. And then if we look at the next slide, you can see him here. He was a deputy to Isadin Hal Hadad who is the uh chief of staff now for the Casam Brigades. And uh blurred faces on this picture because the uh commander was not assassinated at the time. This is from the Al Jazzer documentary uh what is hidden is greater about October 7th. And you can see him uh Ryad Sad walking in behind there of uh Isadin al-Had. Um, Ryads Assad, like many in Gaza, is from uh the a Ascalon area um of what is now southern Israel. Driven into Gaza in 1948. Uh well, driven into a a detention camp in the years after 1948 before being uh sent into the Gaza Strip in the early 1950s. That is the story of uh many of Gaza's population. more than 80% um are refugees or descendants of refugees. So significant leader significant loss um but as Kasam said and as they have done with every other loss of a leader they replace him immediately. Um the PFLP if we look at the next slide you could see PFLP celebrated their 58th anniversary this week but they also the Abu Ali Mustapa brigades sent out a statement about Rahad that said with immense pride and honor the martyr Abu Ali Mustapa brigades uh the military wing of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine mourned the great leader martyr Isid al-Kasam brigades martyed leader Ryad sad who ascended on a uh who ascended as a martyr on the path of alkuds and palis Palestine along with a group of his comrades in a cowardly Zionist assassination. That blood shed for freedom and dignity stands as a testament to the loyalty of its owners of their national message and their bearing the trust of defending our people and our cause. It is blood that exposes the brutality of aggression and confirms that the will of the people is stronger than to be broken and that the path of liberation is paved by the steadfastness of those who choose to stand against oppression no matter how fierce the storms. Um so that's from the PFLP and you can see their poster there that says the sun will um the sun will not kneel before you oh dawn of freedom. It says there, as you can see, uh, the muzzle of the AK bursting through the wall there on that poster that was released this week. There's another, uh, PFLP poster here, uh, on their 58th anniversary saying that 58 years of unwavering resistance and indomitable will. Um, and the slogan remains Palestine, all of Palestine. So that is from the PFLP uh, marked their anniversary this week. Interestingly, interestingly, they mark their anniversary as they do every year um by doing community service. So, we saw the PFLP cadre out in the streets of Gaza cleaning up uh the destruction um working with the civil defense to um to get to clean up and to repair the city uh on their own, not waiting for uh international help on that. Palestinians have long um long ago begun uh the rebuilding process. But also PFOP deputy secretary general Jamir Metsar said in a speech this week that we affirm that the weapon of resistance is a political issue and part of the tasks of the national consensus on the national political strategy not part of the occupation's conditions. So that's about disarming. Uh they are not disarming on the occupation's conditions. Um the Palestinian resistance factions have said they will disarm uh in the sense that they will turn their weapons over to the national army once the Palestinian uh state has been uh created. So uh strong statements there from the PFLP uh as well and of course um the left always saluting the Casam Brigades uh and other factions. the joint operations room and the ability of these factions to work together has been one of the um real testaments to the battle that we have been witnessing over the last two years. Now um if we look at the next one we're at number 14 here I believe tomorrow are we? Yes. Yes. The this is the Rada unit. This is the deterrence force uh set up by the resistance internal security working under the Ministry of the Interior. Um released an amnesty after the death of Yaser Abu Shabbab who is uh Israeli collaborator that was killed earlier this month. Um this is the second amnesty that um resistance security, this is all resistance factions uh together have uh offered to the collaborators um that were uh working with the Israelis either during the war or since. And this uh particular um poster that we're seeing was distributed around Gaza. The text says, "The door of repentance has been opened for collaborators affiliated with IDFbacked militias supported by the occupation for a period of only 10 days. 9 days remain. Turn yourself into the security of the resistance so that every person involved may place their fate in their own hands before the time to go back is lost." um in the hashtags there say time is running out and they're using the um the time is running out um statement uh hashtag line and imagery that was used for the prisoners throughout the war um as well and the interior ministry confirmed that legal cases are proceeding uh for people that have turned themselves in. Um and the interior minister said your fate is sealed. Return to the embrace of your people before it is too late. This next slide shows them counting this down. 3 days left. Time is running out. The decision is in your hands. There are three days and time is running out. The next slide is down to two days. Um this was earlier this week. Admitting a mistake is courageous. The poster says there is no time to wait. Only two days remaining and the time is running out. So, u resistance security backed by the clans in Gaza and prominent families in Gaza who are um who are on side with this program of bringing collaborators in. Um and of course we can see on this next slide the that uh the deterrence force released this uh poster after the death of Yaser Abu Shabbab that said, "As we told you, Israel will not protect you." uh when he was killed uh earlier this month. Um the Assembly of Palestinian Tribes and Clans in Gaza said, "We are proud and honored by the extent of the societal rejection of the abnormal situation of this treacherous mercenary group, the which acts as guard dogs and mercenaries for the benefit of the occupation army only. Um, we appreciate the national stance of the Taban clan. That was uh Yaser Abu Shabbab's clan. Uh, which lifted tribal cover from the so-called Yaser Abu Shabbab and disavowed him during his life and after his death. They said, "Let Yaser Abu Shabbab be a lesson." So, significant popular support for routing out these um Israelibbacked uh militias. Maybe we'll dig into those on a future program. Um they are not a formidable threat. They are simply chaos agents. Um, and one more uh slide here. Sarah al- Kuds this week also through spokesman Abu Hamza said that um we in Sarah al- Kuds closed the file of the enemy's captives with us after we handed over the last body last Wednesday, December the 2nd in the northern Gaza Strip as part of the honorable deal resulting from the heroic battle we fought with all pride, honor, and loyalty in which we have affirmed that the enemy's captives will not return except by decision. of the resistance or in coffins. So the had the turnover of captives which was uh Israel's war goal was to return them through violence failed. Um they got them back through negotiation. Of course they're Israelis are reneggging on that negotiation. Um but Saluds is not. Sarai's statement went on to say that we affirm that Sarah Kuds and the resistance factions adhered to all the provisions of the agreement stipulated for the first phase of the ceasefire agreement and the end of the barbaric Zionist war of genocide against our people. And we call on the mediators and the guarantors to pressure the enemy to implement its commitments related to the agreement and stop its re repeated criminal violations. Now, some of the last uh few prisoners, captives to be handed over were handed over by Saral Kuds. They were not in the hands of the Cassam Brigade, something that we've known um since really since October the 7th. Um but uh Saral Kuds here saying that they have turned over their last uh body. There still remains one body of an Israeli soldier uh in Gaza that has not been returned. the ICRC and um the Cassam brigades and the shadow unit are looking for that body still. Um and that is the resistance report for day 84 of Israel's genocide. Just reminder that if you have missed any of the resistance reports, we have a convenient playlist on our YouTube channel um for past episodes of the resistance report, so you can find them there. Hey, hey, hey.