Exclusive: Prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida warns of another Nakba
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Palestinian Operation Freedom Tunnel prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida sends a letter through Al Mayadeen to mark the second anniversary of the heroic operation.
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Operation Freedom Tunnel hero, prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida during his trial in occupied Palestine at the hands of the Israeli occupation
The parties to the disputes in occupied Palestine must stay on heightened alert and be wary of the Israeli enemy's schemes, Operation Freedom Tunnel hero, prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida said in a letter he sent to Al Mayadeen that was released on Wednesday.
The Palestinian prisoner said he "saluted our great people and our valiant resistance in Palestine, its victorious brigades, and the Axis of Resistance from Tehran to Baghdad, passing through the Levant (al-Sham) and the great city of Beirut."
The letter was written on the occasion of the second anniversary of Operation Freedom Tunnel, which saw six Palestinian prisoners liberating themselves from behind Israeli bars.
Al-Arida held the Palestinian factions responsible before history to avert another Nakba afflicting the Palestinian people.
"The Israeli occupation continues its settlement project and the Judaization of al-Quds in order to build its alleged temple," the Palestinian prisoner added in his letter.
"The Israeli enemy believes that the Palestinian status quo, coupled with the absence of an Arab and Islamic role, allows it to achieve its goals, primarily through killing, demolishing, land confiscation, and violations against the captive movement through constant pressure," he wrote.
The mastermind behind Operation Freedom Tunnel told the people of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 to be wary of the Israeli project that represents an existential threat to them, stressing that the occupation has the goal of forcefully and voluntarily displacing them, confiscating Palestinian territories, and putting restrictions on residential compounds so as to prevent them from expanding.
"The daily killings, which are seeing an uptick, are resulting in a victim in every home, and thus, the civil war becomes a matter of time, and it will only end after thousands of deaths, deportations, and displacement," al-Arida underlined.
"In recent years, we have begun to witness internal migration to the refugee camps and cities of the West Bank. It is slow, but it will accelerate soon," he explained.
"I tell the Palestinian youth: Wake up... stop the infighting. Reclaim your identity and memory. Turn to the churches and mosques. Break the barrier of fear of religiosity," the Palestinian prisoner said.
Concluding his letter, the Operation Freedom Tunnel hero said: "Our message to our resistance in Gaza and Iraq (the descendants of Hussein): Our lives have dwindled away in prisons, but the enemy finds solace in us, gloating over our suffering, believing it has achieved its goals in the prisons."
"We look to you to put an end to this humanitarian tragedy that has gone on far too long," al-Arida added.
On the morning of September 6, 2021, six Palestinian prisoners broke out of the high-security Israeli Gilboa prison through a tunnel they dug, which led them outside the prison walls before they were arrested.
The Freedom Tunnel prisoners are Mahmoud al-Arida, Zakaria al-Zubaidi, Yaqoub Qadri, Mohammed al-Arida, Ayham Kamamji, and Munadel Nafi'at.
Mahmoud al-Arida and Yaqoub Qadri were re-arrested four days later, on September 10, 2021 in Al-Nasra. Zakaria al-Zubaidi and Mohammed al-Arida were re-arrested the next day, and Ayham Kamamji and Mundadel Nafi'at on Sunday the 19th, after the house they had barricaded themselves in, east of Jenin, was surrounded.
Read next: Freedom Tunnel saga: Two years on, the shockwave still reverberating
