In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen Online, the military spokesperson for Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ), Abu Hamza, revealed the details of the Beit Lid operation in the occupied West Bank.

The Beit Lid operation was carried out on January 22, 1995, and led to the killing of approximately 24 Israeli occupation soldiers, in addition to dozens of injuries.

In the interview, Abu Hamza also touched on the general Palestinian situation and the increasing acts of resistance in the West Bank recently. 

He also conveyed strong-worded messages to the Israeli occupation, through Al Mayadeen Online, on the 28th anniversary of the qualitative operation.

Beit Lid... a blow to the core of the "settlement" project

The military spokesperson for Al-Quds Brigades highlighted the political circumstances that preceded the operation, making the need for implementing a large and effective resistance act a dire necessity. The reason is that the Israeli occupation and its allies were making every effort to create and impose a new political reality on occupied Palestine, under the pretexts of making peace and reaching settlements, by trying to turn the ill-fated "Oslo Accords” a fait accompli that the Palestinian people have no other choice but to accept. 

The Beit Lid operation came to foil this agreement, and through it, the Islamic Jihad Movement consolidated its adherence to resistance as the only option for the liberation of Palestine. The image was clear: Standing up against the scheme of the so-called "peace" even if it meant that the blood of freedom fighters will be spilled. 

On the factors that led the movement to choose the Beit Lid junction in specific to carry out the double operation, Abu Hamza explained that it is an area where a large number of Israeli soldiers usually gather; the same soldiers who terrorize the Palestinian people, and considering that Al-Quds Brigades is committed to a doctrine that demands confronting whoever inflicts terror and evildoings upon the defenseless, proud, and steadfast people, the operation was inevitable.

Abu Hamza continued to say that the Beit Lid operation came out as an achievement at the security level as well, and not just military-wise, as it necessitated bypassing all [Israeli] fortifications, surveillance systems, barriers, and checkpoints, leading to the killing of approximately 24 soldiers and the wounding of dozens.

The military spokesperson recalled that the operation forced the criminal Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, to address the media and say that the members of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine want to kill Israeli soldiers, "so how do you want me to punish them; do I punish them with death? They're not afraid of it."

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Abu Hamza also said Al-Quds Brigades members will never forget the scene of then-Israeli Chief of Staff, Amnon Shahak, walking among the dead Israeli occupation soldiers at the Beit Lid junction crying. 

Palestinian resistance mindset… Creativity in infiltration

When asked about the personality of the leader who supervised the operation and how the two resistance members, Anwar Sukkar and Salah Shakir, were prepared for the operation, as well as getting them to the place where they were supposed to carry out the operation, Abu Hamza said, "We recall here the great leader Mahmoud Al-Khawaja, may Allah shower him with mercy," who was the leader of ‘Qasam’ - PIJ military wing designation at the time - who supervised the operation himself, all the way from choosing the location until the execution of the operation.

The PIJ military spokesperson also recalled the engineer of the explosive devices, commander Mahmoud Al-Zatma, who oversaw the preparation and processing of the explosive packages carried by the martyrs, as well as martyred leaders Ammar Al-Araj and Ayman Al-Razaina.

Abu Hamza shed light on the role and credit of prisoner Abdul Halim Al-Balbeisi who brought the freedom fighters charged with carrying out the operation to the closest point to the Beit Lid junction.

He stressed that the Islamic Jihad Movement and its military wing dealt a mighty security blow to the occupation, manifested by the two resistance members succeeding in leaving the Gaza Strip, crossing the deployed military checkpoints, inspection and surveillance systems, and cameras, reaching the Beit Lid junction, and sacrificing themselves successively, in an act of unrivaled valor.

Today’s armed confrontations; an extension of yesterday’s modus operandi

Regarding Al-Quds Brigades' view of the recent growing armed confrontations with the occupation in the West Bank, Abu Hamza explained that this revolutionary approach in the West Bank today is but an extension of these heroic operations and the battles that the Palestinian Resistance and Al-Quds Brigades fought in Jenin during the so-called Israeli “Operation Defensive Shield.”

Abu Hamza, through Al Mayadeen, affirmed that the Islamic Jihad Movement has not and will never abandon resistance, neither in the West Bank nor in the Gaza Strip.

Addressing the shameful paths of normalization pursued by some Arab regimes, and answering a question about whether it is possible for the PIJ to overlook such events, the military spokesperson drew his answer from the memory of the Beit Led operation, saying, "The Islamic Jihad Movement and Al-Quds Brigades thwarted all normalization attempts through our blessed operations and battles of Unity of the Battlefields, Seif Al-Quds, and Firm Structure (Al-Bunyan Al-Marsous), just as we previously foiled all attempts to obliterate the right of the Palestinian people through the course of making 'settlements'."

On Beit Lid anniversary… Palestine stands strong, free, and eternal homeland to Palestinians

The interviewer indicated that the Beit Lid operation left an everlasting impact to forever be remembered by the Israeli security establishment, revealing that the Israeli occupation built a monument for its soldiers killed at the site of the operation.

On this point, Abu Hamza said the PIJ codenamed the operation the "Double Missile", considering that the first attack targeting Israeli soldiers was carried out by Anwar Sukkar at the intersection, followed by a second attack carried out by Salah Shakir after Israeli soldiers gathered at the first explosion site.

"Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, and it is a Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic land. We, in Al-Quds Brigades, can never settle for any Zionist presence on this blessed land, PIJ military spokesperson said, addressing the Israeli enemy.

Abu Hamza stressed that Al-Quds Brigades will work to mobilize all potentials and capabilities at the security, military, political, and public levels and direct them toward the course of liberating this Palestinian land.