PRC forms ‘abduction unit’
Operation 'Cavaliers' Wrath': After abducting IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and allegedly kidnapping teen settler Eliyahu Asheri, organization threatens to continue: 'Our goal is to imprint in the Israeli consciousness that regardless even of more Palestinian deaths, the resistance will continue'
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Abir, told Ynet on Tuesday that that his organization has formed special units in the West Bank whose sole purpose is to kidnap soldiers and settlers, in accordance with the continued Operation "Cavaliers' Wrath."
"Our goal it to imprint the message in the Israeli consciousness that regardless of more Palestinian deaths, the resistance will continue to strike at you, until the occupation ends."
According to the spokesman, "Eliyahu Asheri was kidnapped on Sunday." He refused to confirm reports that the settler was no longer alive. "We will release a message at the proper time." He emphasized that the PRC would continue to kidnap soldiers and settlers. He issued a bold threat, saying, "We would like to say to the extolled and failing leaders, (Defense Minister) Amir Peretz and (Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert, that anything that we desire to do, we can do within a few hours. As long as one Palestinian remains in an Israeli prison and as long as soldiers and settlers remain on our land, the fighting and the kidnapping will not cease."
Abu Abir stated that his organization and its military wing, the Salah a-Din Brigades, recently created special units whose sole purpose was to gather information and kidnap soldiers and settlers. "These units and the future kidnappings will show Olmert and Peretz that it is impossible to defeat us and that we will continue to fight for our rights. Many parents of soldiers and settlers will experience what this settler's (Eliyahu Asheri) parents are experiencing right now. We will not be silenced and we will not be calmed. Operation "Cavalier's Wrath" will continue, the kidnapping will continue, and more. We desire to end the occupation and we will carry on until Israel's leaders beg us to stop on bended knee and declare an end to the occupation."
In addition to Asheri, the PRC also kidnapped, in conjunction with Hamas, Cpl. Gilad Shalit after the attack at Kerem Shalom. The organization is active primarily in Gaza, although was recently held responsible for several shooting incidents in the West Bank. PRC operatives in West Bank work mostly in the area of Bethlehem, where one of their cells was discovered building an infrastructure for the assembly of Kassam rockets. Members of the cell, as well as a number of rocket launchers, were arrested a few months ago. In the beginning of April, IDF forces killed Jabar Akhras – known as the 'head of the Kassam array in the West Bank' - near Bethlehem. He led a terror cell for the PRC that was planning to launch Kassam rockets towards the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem.
PRC promises to avenge Samhadana's death
A spokesman for the Salah a-Din Brigades said that the PRC intended to avenge the death of their leader, Jamal Abu-Samhadana, who was killed by IDF forces at the beginning of June. As the man responsible for a number of attacks, including the bombing of a children's school bus near Kfar Darom in November 2000 and for the 2003 infiltration into an IDF outpost in Rafah that left several soldiers dead, he was considered on of the most wanted Palestinians on the IDF's list.
Two months prior to his death, he was appointed as general inspector of the National Palestinian Interior and Defense Ministry, a position equivalent to chief executive officer. The PRC declares: this killing will have consequences and will bring about death and bloodshed in Tel Aviv and in any place where Jews reside. The war will continue until Islam triumphs. We will not leave a single Jew in Palestine, not even their graves or a place to bury their bones.
