The call by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, for rationalizing the martyrdom operations as a deterring weapon against the enemy at the proper time and place and in a way that does not arouse the world public opinion and harm the Palestinian issue has raised a number of inquiries about the new developments in the ideology of the Palestinian armed factions.
In a conference held Wednesday, Yasin announced that Hamas would not send suicide bombers to kill civilians inside Israel but it will carry out suicide bombing operations against the Jewish settlements and military targets reiterating the continuation of resistance against Israel and the settlements.
A top Islamic Jihad leader, Abdulla al Shami, told Albawaba.com that his movement opposes the military operations rationalization, which Sheikh Yasin called for. He confirmed that his movement would stick to all forms of resistance against Israel saying “I don’t think it is a proper time to address such an issue amid the Israeli invasions and systematic destruction of our cities, villages and refugee camps and the annihilation of the Palestinian innocent civilians. We should now unite in order to retaliate and hit the enemy and undermine his security rather than listening to the western media which presses towards depriving us of the only option in our hands.”
Shami confirmed that “targeting Jewish settlements and Israeli soldiers has been going on but the Israeli enemy targets our civilians, cities, villages and refugee camps in the ugliest and most criminal manner. I think operations should be carried out everywhere and against all targets. There should be no borders but if the enemy stops his crimes against our civilians and homes, we will be prepared to stop targeting the Zionist civilians despite the fact they occupied and stole our lands.”
For his part Mahmoud al Zahhar, a Hamas leader, explained the reasons that spurred Sheikh Yasin to call for rationalizing the operations against Israel. “There are some Juvenile Palestinians who want to be killed as martyrs without any planning or help from any side. These children simply leave school, buy explosives and head for the Israeli settlements but before they reach their targets they get killed by the Israeli soldiers.
This is the reason behind the call for rationalizing the military operations, which need planning and training. The various Palestinian factions met and particularly in Gaza and a decision will be announced soon to contain this phenomenon which led to the death of more than 20 children last week.”
Regarding the call by Sheikh Yasin to carry out such operations in a way that wouldn’t harm the Palestinian cause and arouse the world’s public opinion. Zahhar told Albawaba.com, “we have always differentiated between an armed settler, an army reserve civilian or other civilians. The whole Israeli society is a military one.”
“The call is clear, any attack on Palestinian civilians needs response in the same manner and therefore the timing of the operations is the main reason for rationalizing the military operations. In January we halted the martyrdom operations for three weeks but Israel killed more than 20 civilians, wounded 500 and arrested 300 others,” said Zahhar.
He added, “we said for every action there is a reaction and that the Israeli society is a military society. In resistance everything is legitimized and we have practiced all this. But I have to add something to rationalizing the martyrdom operations; we, in Hamas, are against using girls in martyrdom operations but this does not mean that have stopped resistance or that we will receive the occupation forces with roses.” (Albawaba.com)
