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Islamic Jihad: Hamas arrested 10 of our men

Senior group member says detainees include Jihad field commander in Gaza Strip, nine men forced to sign statements pledging to cease rocket fire on Israel prior to being released. 'We have a right to retaliate against enemy's aggression,' he adds

The Hamas government in Gaza reportedly arrested 10 al-Quds Brigades gunmen recently for allegedly firing rockets at Israel, a senior Islamic Jihad source told Ynet on Monday.

 

According to the source, the men were arrested in the southern area of the Gaza Strip, near the town of Khan Younis. Among the detainees was a senior Jihad field commander. The latter, the source added, remains the only one in Hamas' custody, as the other nine were released, but only after they were abused and coerced into signing a statement declaring they would stop firing rockets at Israel.

 

The senior source also noted that the head of Hamas' internal security forces informed the detainees that they must adhere to the pacts made between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad leadership after the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

 

Hamas' warnings aside, the source said that it was the Islamic Jihad's right to retaliate on the assassination of its operatives. "We don’t understand how we are expected to observe the ceasefire when the occupying forces violate it.

 

"It was only a few days ago that they killed one of our operatives, Khaled Sha'alan, and took out two others in the al-Maghazi refugee camp (in central Gaza) and a third in (the northern Gaza Strip town of) Beit Lahiya.

 

"We – as all the other Palestinian groups – have the right to respond to all acts of aggression and to the crimes committed against our people. The rockets are part of our resistance… especially when the enemy cannot tell the difference between a Hamas, Jihad or Fatah operative," continued the source.

 

The Islamic Jihad, he added, demands the Palestinian government support the Gaza resistance rather than oppose it and "refrain from applying the same policies as the West Bank government, which persecutes the warriors and jails them."

 

The source then called on all of the Palestinian groups to unite and condemn the arrest of any of the resistance's operatives.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.09.09, 10:03
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