The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement mourned Saturday dawn martyred commander Iyad Al-Hasani, who was assassinated on Friday as part of an operation carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in central Gaza.

A member of the PIJ's Military Council and Commander of the Al-Quds Brigades Operations Unit, Al-Hasani was martyred in a cowardly Israeli assassination mission in Al-Nasr neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

The Joint Operations Room of the Resistance Factions, Hamas, Al-Mujahideen movement, National Resistance Brigades, Al-Nasser Salaheddine Brigades, Fatah and Al-Ahrar movements also mourned the martyr, stressing that the crimes of the Israeli occupation would not stop the Palestinian people's Resistance and unity.

"Martyr Iyad Al-Hasani lived his life as a freedom fighter, an educator, and a Resistance advocate, devoting his life to the Resistance, taking on many roles as a commander and a fighter," the PIJ said in a statement issued in the wake of Al-Hasani's martyrdom.

The Resistance faction underlined that it would uphold the principles of the Palestinian Resistance regardless of the price and the sacrifices given toward the cause, stressing that "the response to this crime will continue."

Al-Qassam Brigades mourn martyred commander

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, also mourned the martyred PIJ official, lauding his role in coordinating between the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades during Operation Avenging the Free.

The Al-Qassam Brigades pledged to the Palestinian martyrs that their blood would "not go in vain, but rather light the path for the freedom fighters and light the fire that will engulf the occupied."

"The path of Resistance will be upheld, and we will not deviate from it no matter the sacrifices," the faction said.

Who is martyr Al-Hassani that the Israeli occupation assassinated on Friday? And what role did he play in the Resistance?

Al-Hassani joined the PIJ early on after it was founded in the 1980s. He is one of the most prominent leaders of Al-Quds Brigades and one of the most wanted Resistance leaders by the Israeli occupation, for more than 26 years.

The martyr is one of those who supervised martyrdom operations against the Israeli occupation in occupied Palestinian cities under the PIJ's former military wing (Qasam) and is the commander behind a series of other resistance operations during the second Palestinian Intifada.

Al-Hassani is considered one of the founders of (Qasam) and one of the most wanted by the Israeli occupation forces, due to his great role in planning martyrdom operations inside illegal Israeli settlements during Al-Aqsa Intifada.

One of the most prominent operations that the martyr supervised was the "Beit Lid operation, which resulted in the death of 22 Israelis and the wounding of 63 others, including 20 seriously.

Al-Hassani was one of the masterminds of the Beit Lid double operation, which is one of the most prominent PIJ operations carried out by Anwar Sukkar (Al-Shujaiya) and Salah Shaker (Rafah), on January 22, 1995, that targeted a gathering of Israeli occupation soldiers at the Beit Lid crossroads.

During a PIJ meeting held in the city of Rafah, Al-Hassani said the military leadership is satisfied with the readiness of Al-Quds Brigades for all possible scenarios and to surprise the enemy. He also touched on the Resistance situation in the occupied West Bank.

It is noteworthy that since the start of the aggression on Tuesday, the Israeli occupation assassinated Al-Quds Brigades commanders Jihad Ghannam, Khalil Al-Bahtini, Tarek Ezzedine, Ali Hassan Ghali, Ahmad Abu Daqqa, and recently Iyad Al-Hassani.