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Burying Their Dead, Palestinians Vow Resistance
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Mourners carry the Hamas flag draped coffins of Palestinians massacred by Israeli troops
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By
Sami Oleika, Ahmed Bin Aqlin, IOL Correspondent
GAZA
CITY, May 2 (IslamOnline.net) - As blood still spills over the
rubble of Palestinian houses razed during the Israeli massive raid
that claimed the lives of 13 Palestinians, including a 2-year-old
toddler and 15-year-old boy on Thursday, May 1, Palestinians vowed
unabated resistance to the long-standing Israeli occupation.
The
alley at the Shajaiya district where the house of Yusef Abu Hin, a
leader of the Hamas resistance movement, was once located appeared as
a beleaguered area rocked by a high-magnitude earthquake.
The
Israeli occupation forces shelled the area for 15 consecutive hours,
leaving 20 houses nearby bearing the brunt.
But
the deaths were much harder to forget, and even forgive; Yusef and his
two brothers Ayman, 30, and Mahmud, 29, breathed their last to the
Israeli fire.
After
the invading forces pulled out, the inhabitants were seen sifting
through the rubble with mixed feelings of sadness and resilience
against stifling occupation that put all of their lives on the line,
with their minds preoccupied with haunting one-day-old memory of what
happened.
Some
60 Israeli armored vehicles, including tanks and bulldozers backed by
helicopter gunships, stormed
the district at the small hours of Thursday.
Failing
to kill Yusef, 38, the occupation forces eventually had to dynamited
the four-storey building he was inside and raze it to the ground.
With
the long hours of thundering fire opened on the area by tanks,
infantry and helicopters, the attack can be worthily dubbed a
“massacre”.
But
it was also a lesson boosting sentiments of resilience to injustice,
oppression inflicted by the Israeli occupation forces.
“When
the army laid siege to the house, calling on Abu Hin’s sons to get
out. They refused to comply, and bravely hurled hand grenades at the
occupation soldiers, leaving some of them wounded,” Abu Mohamed,
Hin’s uncle told IslamOnline.net.
“The
Israeli occupation does not want us to stay alive or keep up
dignity,” he charged, fighting back tears.
The
inhabitants of the area also felt the pinch of the Israeli slaughter,
complaining their children were panicked by the screaming sound of
shelling and spills of blood spreading at the scene.
“Israeli
soldiers captured me after being blindfolded hand-tied. They took us
to a place where we were questioned about our relation to Hin’s
family,” complained Abu Alaa Sirsawy, told reporters of the dilemma
of his family and seven members of the activist’s family.
“Children
were terrified during the aggression; and we were forced to transfer
them to safer places through windows,” said his wife.
The
Israeli occupation forces wrecked havoc to the infrastructure at the
area, with their shelling in every direction.
“The
bulldozers deliberately destroyed water systems at the area” charged
Sirsawy.
The
Israeli occupation forces had abducted almost all members of the Abu
Hin family and later released them except for Fadl Abu Hin, a
prominent Palestinian psychology professor, his brother Ziad and their
cousin Yasser, a reporter.
“Never
Broken”
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13 Palestinians, including a 2-year-old toddler, lost their lives to the new Israeli massacre |
But
the more they face the Israeli aggressions, the more Palestinians put
up gritty resistance boosted by hopes of establishing an independent
state and allowing return of their relatives who became refugees after
expulsion at the hands of the Israeli occupiers.
“Resistance
by the group will never draw a close, and the jihad of the
Palestinians will not dwindle despite all conspiracy plots contrived
against them,” vowed Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin,
while touring the scene of thev Israeli crime.
“We
will never lay down arms, and will continue fighting against the
Israeli enemy,” he told IslamOnline.net.
“Revenge”
In
the meanwhile, some 50,000 Palestinians joined the funeral procession
for the victims of the deadly Israeli raid after Friday prayers in
Gaza City, chanting slogans against Israel and their own new prime
minister.
Many
demonstrators shouted "Revenge, Revenge!!" while others
carried Hamas and Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against
Israel.
Sheikh
Yassin was at the funeral and vowed his organization would not heed
any ceasefire calls.
"This
is a message from the Palestinian people to Israel, which is
committing massacres against us.
"Our
jihad (holy war) will continue to grow stronger as long as our land is
occupied, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, and the 1948
territories," Sheikh Yassin said in reference to Israel.
Also
Friday, the Israeli army launched a brief
incursion in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and the
adjacent refugee camp, Palestinian security sources said.
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