Jabalia Steadfast in Face of Israeli Bombs

With the intensification of the Israeli bombing of northern Gaza and with a siege of more than 80 days now, especially of Jabalia, its camp and Beit Lahia, the resistance is using all available tools to counter the Israeli aggression despite  turning north Gaza into an eyesore of destruction and not a place for survival.

The resistance continues to show unparalleled bravery standing up Israeli soldiers who can be seen carrying their dead and wounded on a daily basis.

The Jabalia camp, one of the largest refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, reflects, with its history and reality, a miniature image of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Analysts point out the operations launched from Jabalia reflect the roots of the Palestinian struggle rooted in the camps since the Nakba in 1948.

“We are the ones who used to chase the Israeli patrol in our camp here (Jabalia) with the sticks”… This was one of the expressions used by martyr leader Nizar Rayyan inside the Jabalia camp. He was martyred in the first wars that the resistance fought with the Israeli occupation forces in 2008-2009, showing the bravery of the people of Jabalia and their legendary steadfastness in confronting the occupier.

 “Just as we rubbed your noses in Ashdod, we will rub your noses in Jabalia,” Rayyan used to say.

While the 444 days of this rabid war on Gaza Strip should have been enough to end the resistance – according to Israeli and American thinking – the Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades fighters in Jabalia say this is wishful thinking even if thousands of Mujahideens are killed, and the weapons run out as the recent stabbing operations show. These operations shouldn’t be interperated to mean as some suggest that weapons are running out for the enemy’s daily losses are not decreasing while the capabilities of the resistance are rising.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, announced Sunday, it targeted nine soldiers inside a house with a “TBG” shell west of Jabalia camp, confirming they have either been killed and/or wounded whilst stating it destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with a “commando” explosive device in the Al-Alami area in the center of Jabalia camp.

The brigades added that “a Zionist officer was sniped in Abu Al-Aish Street in the center of Jabalia camp, north of the Strip,” and said it targeted a second Israeli troop carrier with a “commando” explosive device west of Beit Lahia, north of the Strip.

As well last Friday, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced it carried out a complex operation in Jabalia camp; where one of its fighters advanced towards an Israeli sniper and his assistant, and stabbed them to death, adding the fighter wore the uniform of one of the dead, and an hour after the operation, he advanced towards an Israeli force of six individuals, and blew himself up with an explosive belt, killing and wounding its members.

Last Saturday, Al-Qassam Brigades announced on its Telegram channel its fighters carried out a complex operation, stabbing three Israeli soldiers to death, seizing their personal weapons, then storming a house where a foot force had taken cover, killing two of its soldiers at the house gate.

On Sunday, the Al Jihad Al-Quds Brigades stated that one of its heroic martyrs stormed a Zionist troop carrier and carried out a special operation by detonating a suicide bomb among the soldiers who were at the entrance to the Al-Awda Towers in Ezbet Beit Hanoun.

Military analyst Major-General Fayez Al-Duwairi says “zero distance” is a golden opportunity for resistance fighters in their confrontation with the occupation forces, given the big difference between the equipment of the Israeli army with its high capabilities, and the weapons made by al- mujahideen locally.

He added the more the intensity of the ground aggression and Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip areas increases, the greater the resistance’s opportunity to engage directly with enemy forces.

Since the start of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood, the resistance fighters have shown the most prominent of their weapons to target the Israeli enemy, including Al-Yassin 105 shells, tandem shells, sniper weapons, Shawaaz bombs and machine guns according to the Palestine Information Center.

However, the use of the stabbing weapon and explosive belts  which emerged in recent days to carry out martyrdom operations, indicates that the weapons used by the resistance are no longer as accessible as they were in the past, due to the tight siege imposed by the occupation, and the intensity of the operations carried out by the resistance fighters, which has led to the depletion of the battalions’ weapons stockpile.

The heroic operations carried out by the resistance fighters in northern Gaza over the past 80 days have resulted in the killing of more than 70 soldiers and officers in the occupation forces, in the Jabalia camp and camp alone, including the bombing of more than 100 military vehicles, 17 sniper operations, and 26 clashes with a foot force.

In a Yedioth Ahronoth interview with an Israeli officer he said the confrontation in northern Gaza these days is through the alleys, face to face with Palestinian fighters who do not fear death and refuse to be arrested.

Major-General Mohammed Al-Samadi believes that the significance of the stabbing operations and martyrdom operations in Jabalia confirms that the resistance is cohesive and strong, and adapts according to combat developments, and carries out hit-and-run operations, and carries out operations through small groups, including the lone wolf operations carried out by one of the mujahideen against the occupation forces, causing casualties and injuries in their ranks.

Al-Samadi added in an interview with Al Jazeera the resistance in northern Gaza has killed 17 soldiers through sniper operations, and that one fighter in the resistance factions can kill a group of individuals in the occupation forces, indicating that the occupation suffers from weak morale among its fighters, and also suffers from an intelligence failure in knowing the resistance’s tactics.

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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‘All I Want is to Bury My Family in Dignity’  

GAZA – Abdel Rahman Khalla no longer holds any dreams of a life; there is no home waiting for him, no family to return to, and no future he can envision as he once did. After losing 39 members of his family under the rubble of their home in northern Gaza, all hopes and aspirations dwindled to a single wish: To find the bodies of his loved ones and bury them with dignity.

Amidst the heavy stones, the dust, and the agonizing wait, he now asks for nothing more than a simple human right: A grave to embrace those who have passed away, and an end befitting the story of a family wiped out by war.

He has decided to dig and undertake this task himself.

Amid the rubble of a five-story building, Khalla stands as the sole witness to one of the most horrific massacres in northern Gaza. He lost about 39 members of his family in a single attack on their home in the Jabalia al-Nazla area on 21 December, 2023.

Read also: Gaza: Civil Defense begins recovering bodies from rubble

Abdul Rahman, the sole survivor of his family, recounts the details of the tragedy, which continues till this day. He says that 39 people, including women and children, were inside the house at the time of the bombing. All were killed under the rubble and no one else emerged alive.

He adds that only 18 bodies were recovered, while the rest, 20 to 21 others, are strill trapped under the debris – over 30 months later because there was no heavy machinery to remove the rubble and debris. Today, Israel continues to block such machinery from entering Gaza.

Abdul Rahman confirmed to the Sanad News Agency they exhausted all avenues, appealing to the Red Cross, Civil Defense, and the Jabalia al-Nazla Municipality, as well as the Qatari and Egyptian committees, requesting such heavy equipment to help in recovering the bodies but all of their appeals went unanswered.

“After 30 months of suffering, we decided to dig with our bare hands,” Abdul Rahman explained, adding the members of his surviving family had only begun manually removing the rubble four days prior, using simple and worn-out tools such as shovels, picks, and light rakes, despite the dangerous situation and the sheer size of their building that collapsed.

But during these arduous efforts, they only managed to recover two bodies; one belonging to his uncle, and the other who remains unidentified. About 19 bodies remain buried under the rubble, awaiting recovery and a proper burial.

Abdel Rahman appeals to the Egyptian Committee and the Reconstruction Committee for urgent intervention, requesting they send bulldozers and trucks to remove the rubble and debris. He emphasizes his family is not asking for the impossible, but simply for their right to reach their loved ones and bury them with dignity.

The tragedy of the Khalla family is not just another statistic in the war’s record, but a human story that speaks of all the suffering of Gaza, where entire families still live amidst the ruins of their homes, searching for their martyrs and awaiting for a long-delayed mercy.

Despite the ceasefire agreement in Gaza that came into effect on October 10, 2025, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to evade their obligations by preventing the entry of hundreds of heavy vehicles needed to remove the thousands of tons of rubble scattered throughout the Strip.

According to data from the Government Media Office, the occupation destroyed 90% of the civilian infrastructure in Gaza during the two years of its offensive, leaving behind more than 70 million tons of rubble, in one of the region’s largest humanitarian disasters in the world.

The Civil Defense Authority indicated in previous statements that dozens of families in Gaza continue to send appeals for help in recovering their relatives months after their martyrdom, but the Authority is unable to respond due to the lack of necessary equipment.

This article was in the Arabic Sanad Lil Anba website and reproduced in crossfirearabia.com.

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‘Living Graves’, Is How Palestinian Journalist Describes Israeli Prison

Veteran Palestinian journalist Ali Samoudi described Israeli prisons as “living graves” after his release on Thursday, appearing in severely deteriorated physical condition following his arrest by Israeli forces last year.

Samoudi, who worked for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds and international media outlets, said he lost 60 kilograms (about 132 pounds) while in Israeli prison. “My weight was 120 kilograms (about 264 pounds); now my weight is 60 kilograms,” Samoudi said.

According to Samoudi, prison conditions were harsh and cruel, and prisoners suffered. “The food is very bad. Even a cat would not eat what they eat,” he said. “Prisoners have nothing. No notebook, no pen, nothing,” he added, calling on the families of detainees to take care of their well-being. 

He was arrested in April 2025 on false claims of transferring funds to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Samoudi and his family strongly denied the allegations.

In a statement issued in January, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said al-Samoudi has not been granted a fair trial and that his arrest is “a blatant violation of international law and press freedom”.

The syndicate also warned “that his life is now at risk” due to the harsh and inhumane treatment he has been experiencing in prison.

Samoudi’s son, Mohammed, said his father was an “independent journalist who isn’t affiliated with any party,” adding he was “surprised to hear him being accused of ties with Islamic Jihad. I was in shock.”

Mohammed said the forces raided their home at around 5 A.M., searched the premises and destroyed some of the family’s belongings before taking his father away. He said he didn’t know where his father is being held, but said the family is particularly worried because he is diabetic and suffers from high blood pressure, and therefore needs a special diet and medications.

On May 8, 2025, Wafa reported that an Israeli court had issued an administrative detention order against him for a period of six months.

This was because the Israeli army said it did not have “sufficient evidence” to formally charge him and had hence issued an administrative detention order.

In a statement issued to the United States news group CNN, the Israeli army said: “As sufficient evidence was not found against him, and in light of the accumulated intelligence material, security authorities requested to consider issuing an administrative detention order.”

The military claimed the order was justified as Samoudi’s “presence” posed “a danger to the security of the region”.

Since then, Samoudi has been held in administrative detention and his detention order has been repeatedly renewed.

Samoudi also witnessed the Israeli killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in 2022 and was himself injured that day.

“I was there personally and witnessed the whole thing,” he said about the killing of his colleague. “There was no one there apart from the Israeli force, and they were the ones who shot at us.”

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said Samoudi is among more than 3,530 Palestinians held under administrative detention, in addition to over 40 journalists still held in Israeli prisons, including four women.

The group renewed calls for the release of all detained journalists and urged the international community to take responsibility for ongoing violations against prisoners.

More than 9,600 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, including women and children, facing torture, starvation and medical neglect, which have led to the deaths of dozens, according to Palestinian and Israeli rights groups. – Quds News Network

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