Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Al Quds Brigade: Urban Battle yet to Begin | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Gaza, Asharq Al-Awsat- Abu Ahmed, the official media spokesman of the Al Quds Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat exclusively regarding the Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip, stating that “On the 19th consecutive day [of the attack], Israeli tanks are stationing themselves in the open areas of the Gaza Strip” confirming that “the urban areas are unyielding against the occupying army, due to the significant resistance on all fronts.” He also expected the number of martyrs to increase if the Israeli army push forward into the urban areas and meet the resistance face-to-face.

Abu Ahmed added that “the land battle has yet to begin, and the Palestinian resistance has used only 40 percent of its over-all capacity in the battle currently taking place with the occupying army.” He also revealed that units of snipers and suicide bombers, booby-trapped houses and cars, and thousands of resistance fighters equipped with improvised explosive devices [IEDs], individual bombs, and RPG’s have yet to be involved in the combat, stressing that “these cadres are ready for action if the Israel enemy thinks of making an incursion into urban areas.”

The Al Quds Brigade spokesman also pointed out that artillery units assigned to firing mortal shells and rockets will also be operating in addition to the thousands of resistance fighters spread throughout the streets and alleyways [of the Gaza Strip] and who and are waiting for the [urban] battle that will take place in the alleyways of the refugee camps and residential areas.

Abu Ahmed predicted that “in the event of the resistance meeting the occupying army face to face in the coming hours, the number of martyrs [killed] will increase to more than ten thousand, with thousands wounded, while the enemy will risk heavy losses.” He also disclosed that elements of the Palestinian resistance, whose number are estimated at 40 thousand, are ready [for battle] and are equipped with a variety of weapons.

He added that factions within the resistance “are working side by side with one heart to repulse the brutal Israeli aggression on all fronts.” Adding that “everybody helps everybody else with regards to food, weapons, and first aid; there is no difference between a member ‘Al Quds Brigade’ or ‘Al Qassam Brigade [military wing of Hamas]’ or ‘Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade’ or ‘Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade [military wing of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or PFLP]’. For everybody’s goal is the same and their compass is pointing in the same direction, and that is to drive out the occupation and defeat them, and disrupt their plan to dissolve the Palestinian Cause”