‘Stalingrad of Palestine’ – Jabalia, Steadfast in The Face of Genocide

• CrossFireArabia
• December 11, 2024

The recent Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, north Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of 3 Israeli soldiers and the wounding of 18 others, including two seriously, is a message of steadfastness and determination, written by the camp, 431 days after the genocidal war on the Strip.

The Israeli occupation army admitted in a statement that “the incident that occurred in Jabalia resulted from Palestinian gunmen firing an anti-tank missile at the soldiers.”

Israel’s Channel 14 said “10 gunmen attacked an army force using missiles and automatic weapons while it was on leave.”

‘Stalingrad of Palestine‘

The qualitative operation comes 66 days after the current Israeli occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip, armed with its military arsenal, amidst bombing, destruction, siege and starvation.

And so Arab activists and bloggers on the social media are now calling the steadfast Jabalia as the “Stalingrad of Palestine”.

“Stalingrad” is one of the major battles in history and a pivotal turning point in World War II, which took place between Germany (and its allies from the Axis powers) and the Soviet Union to control the Soviet city of Stalingrad (today called Volgograd) between the summer of 1942 and February 1943.

The battle ended with the surrender of the German Sixth Army, and marked the beginning of the end of Germany’s advance in this war.

Political researcher Saeed Ziad was an example of those who praised the heroism of the Jabalia Camp and its resistance that came out to break the back of the occupation, and wrote on his page on the X platform “Stalingrad, Jabalia”.

Under the hashtag “Jabalia, the Stalingrad of Palestine”, activist Baraa Rayyan wrote: “The steadfastness of Stalingrad was the beginning of the defeat of the Nazi invasion of Russia, and then the defeat of Nazism. Perhaps Jabalia’s steadfastness and fighting for 15 months, the last 3 of which were under a tight siege, will be the beginning of the defeat of the enemy and the expulsion of the aggression from beloved Gaza.”

Activist Anwar Qassem praised the Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, saying that “after 429 days of war and 66 days of a tight siege in the third battle (the occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip), Jabalia deserves the title of the Stalingrad of Palestine.”

Under the same hashtag, activist Muhammad al-Najjar praised Jabalia camp, “whose youth inherit the banner of fighting generation after generation and do not know the word surrender in their dictionary.”

He added in a tweet on his account: “Jabalia, 37 years after the outbreak of the first intifada from its alleys, and after 429 days with the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa, and after 65 days of its siege in its third battle, a qualitative operation is being carried out.”

Another opinion refused to compare Jabalia to any other spot in the world, and considered that what is happening in the camp and the Gaza Strip is unlike any other spot in the world.

‘Jabalia is Jabalia’

In this regard, activist Ghazi Al-Majdalawi wrote: “I refuse to call Jabalia the Stalingrad of Palestine or any other name, Jabalia is Jabalia. Neither Stalingrad nor any spot in the world has what is happening in Jabalia happened in it, and no one in the world is more heroic than the people of Jabalia for us to emulate them.”

Activists considered that “Jabalia is unlike anyone”, and that “no force on earth, no matter how arrogant and tyrannical, can break the faith, will and belief of the people of the land,” stressing that “Jabalia and Gaza are two unique cases of steadfastness and faith.”

On 6 October, the Israeli occupation army launched a new and third military operation in the northern Gaza Strip under the pretext of “preventing the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas from regaining its strength in the area.”

Late last month, Israeli Channel 13 described the fighting in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps, north of the Strip, as “harmful and difficult,” and estimated that there were about 200 Hamas fighters in Jabalia “fighting till death.”

According to Israeli army data, 816 officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, including 384 since the large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip on 27 October, 2023, while resistance factions say that the occupation’s losses far exceed that in terms of soldiers and vehicles.

According to the same data, 33 Israeli officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the current military operation in the northern Gaza Strip according to Al Jazeera.