Seeking new living arrangements. Abu Abir
צילום: איי אף פי
PRC spokesman not deterred by strike on home
'We will continue with jihad, even if we all live in tents or thousands more are killed,' says seasoned gunman after his home is leveled by IDF
"The bombing of my home will not deter me or the resistance from fighting against the occupation," Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said Thursday after his Gaza home was leveled by the IDF.
"I prefer them to bomb my home rather than the homes of the innocent," he told Ynet. Abu Abir rejected claims that the armed organizations in Gaza were purposefully operating out of civilian centers.
"Where should we go?" he asked. "We have neither forests nor mountains. We live with our people who, by the way, love, support, and empower us."
He said the house bombed by the Air Force in the afternoon was not his, but that he was renting it. "When a person who knows who I am agrees to rent his home out to me despite the possible outcomes – like the strike today – it proves the Palestinian people support us and the resistance. I've received dozens of phone calls from people offering to have me over, who are not afraid of what happened today."
Abu Abir added, "This is just my modest part in the suffering of my people. But we will continue with the jihad, even if we all live in tents or thousands more are killed. This is the tax the resistance pays, and in our faith it is not a heavy tax considering the thousands of martyrs who have already fallen."
When asked whether Hamas' halting of the ceasefire seemed like a good idea to him Abu Abir replied, "We agreed ahead of time that the truce would last six months and this period was over in December. On principle we agreed to a truce that would lift the siege, and when the siege was not lifted there was no longer any reason for the truce."
'War and jihad are only way'
Despite this Abu Abir admitted that he and his men were not expecting Israel's severe retaliation for the rocket fire on its southern communities.
"I admit, we never thought the IDF operation would be so extensive or at such a pace. However once it happened there was no going back. Only war and jihad are the way, there is no way for a ceasefire, certainly not on the terms offered by defeatist Arabs and the Europeans cooperating with Israel," he said, referring to the Egyptian initiative backed by France.
Abu Abir said the PRC would accept no ceasefire that disregarded the siege on Gaza, and stressed that they would not agree to the presence of an international force in the Strip.
"We will treat them as an occupying force to be fought against," he said, adding that he planned to demand an international trial for "the Israeli war crimes" in Gaza.
When asked whether cries of Gaza becoming a cemetery for IDF soldiers had been refuted Abu Abir replied, "We spoke about fighting inside the Strip. Who says the Israelis are even in the Strip?"
He added, "They may be on Palestinian territory, but they don't dare enter the (refugee) camps and the cities. Six days have passed since the ground operation began and they haven't proceeded one meter. All of their dead are from rockets and mortars because it hasn't come to face to face fighting on our turf."
