27 August 2000

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful    

“Verily Allah will defend (from ill) those who believe”
“That, and also because Allah is He Who makes feeble the plans of the unbelievers.”

Heroic battle by Mujhaid Mahmoud Abu Hannoud
Against Zionist occupation forces

Our Palestinian people …Our Arab and Islamic Nation:
Mujahid Mahmoud Abu Hannoud, one of the commanders of the Qassam Brigades, has indulged in a heroic battle in the brave village of Aseera Shamaliya of Nablus, against a terrorist special unit grouping hundreds of Zionist enemy soldiers backed by five helicopter gun ships and armored vehicles. He was able, all praises to Allah, to kill three enemy soldiers and wound nine others, one of whom sustained serious injuries.

The occupation army’s suspicious moves started at 9.50 pm Saturday a few meters away from Abu Hannoud housing complex owned by brother of the wanted Mujhaid Abu Hannoud. Close to that complex there was a house of one of his relatives named Nidhal Daghles Abu Yassin where the occupation authority expected the Mujhaid to be there. The enemy soldiers and snipers occupied surrounding houses and stationed in sensitive spots along with rooftops to tighten their siege.

During that siege and build up the Mujahid Abu Hannoud was not inside the house but rather in its vicinity where he surprised the enemy by opening his machinegun fire at the panicked soldiers.

The occupation troops wounded owner of the house Nidhal Daghles in the chest and feet and he could not get out of the house due to his severe injuries. Two hours later the enemy soldiers stormed the house and dragged Daghles out of it for more than 50 meters. They started torturing him, beating his wounds, to force him provide information on the Mujahid Abu Hannoud.

The night of northern Osaira turned into daylight due to the abundant use of flare bombs fired into its skies that were seen by all those in the Nablus vicinity. Shooting and clashes continued until a late hour.

During that military siege and confrontations between Mujahid Abu Hannoud and the enemy soldiers calls of Allahu Akbar and there is no God but Allah were voiced from the Mosques’ loudspeakers along with calls on the inhabitants to break the curfew, which the enemy tried to impose on the village. Calls were also voiced for backing the Mujahid Abu Hannoud in a bid to break the siege against him. Men, women, young and old, rushed to the rescue and clashed with the enemy’s confused soldiers.

Enemy soldiers arrested five citizens including Imam of the village’s main mosque Sheikh Dhirar Hamadne, 39, who was one of the deportees to Marj Al-Zuhour in South Lebanon eight years ago along with the wounded man Nidhal Daghles and each of Ahmed Khalil, Shaher, Taher and Taiseer Abdullah Odeh.

Mujahid Mahmoud Abu Hannoud was able to flee from the occupation army’s siege thanks to Allah and reach Nablus despite the injuries in his shoulder, arm and back and the enemy’s chase. In Nablus, Palestinian Authority’s security men arrested him and he is still in their custody.

The PA’s preventive security apparatus had intensified its efforts in the past few months in search of Mujahid Mahmoud Abu Hannoud and arrested all those believed to have any connections with him. They were pressured into providing any information that could lead to his arrest.

Our Palestinian people … our Arab and Islamic Nation:
We, in the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, in the light of that unbalanced heroic battle, which led to the killing of enemy soldiers and lowering their morals, affirm the following:

The failure of more than 300 Zionist armed-to-the-teeth soldiers along with their choppers, reconnaissance planes and advanced hardware in arresting the brave hero Mahmoud Abu Hannoud and the killing of three soldiers and the injury of many others proved the fragility of the theory of the so-called “myth of the invincible Zionist army”. The incidents also proved that the resistance option was still capable of inflicting heavy losses in lines of that army and defend the Palestinian people’s rights.

The military confrontation that took place in Aseera Shamaliya, in which a Qassam Brigade hero stood fast against the Zionist army, boosted our conviction and our people’s confidence that when the will of confronting the occupation was coupled with unshaken belief in our creed and principles then we could defeat the Zionist occupation and force its withdrawal from our occupied lands by the grace of Allah.

This is the lesson that should be well absorbed in this sensitive stage of our cause in the light of the successful experience of the brave resistance in Lebanon, especially after the failure of the settlement option in restoring our rights and lands from the enemy in addition to the humiliating conditions attached to that settlement as evident in the results of the latest Camp David summit.

The occupation troops’ savage and barbaric aggression against Aseera Shamaliya, storming and besieging it, clamping a curfew on its inhabitants, demolishing one of the houses and leaving an injured person, who was later arrested, for more than an hour without treatment along with other practices proved anew that Zionist terrorism and aggression were still savagely targeting our people even under the so-called “peace march.”

Our people’s joyful reaction to the military confrontation, within the occupied homeland and in the diaspora, especially inhabitants of Aseera Shamaliya, revealed that our heroic people were still clearly in favor of the struggle option. It also proved that our people were not hesitant in supporting resistance with all available means despite the attempts to blackout or to forge the will of that people in service of the meager settlement program. Hence, we call for backing the resistance option on the official level and allowing the Arab peoples to support that option so that it would succeed in defeating occupation.

While greeting our people especially inhabitants of the steadfast Aseera Shamaliya, we hold the PA responsible for arresting Mujahid Mahmoud Abu Hannoud. We strongly call on that Authority to free him along with all his brothers the Mujahideen and to stop hurdling the resistance program for the enemy’s sake. We affirm that maintaining the detention policy against him and his brothers the Mujahideen was an unforgivable national crime and posed as a challenge to the will of our Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic Nation, which are in dire need of such heroes to lead the Jihad and struggle in defense of the Aqsa, Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Palestine. We also warn against any harm done to him or delivering him to the enemy.

We appeal to our Arab and Islamic Nation at this crucial stage in history of the cause, with Al-Quds and the Aqsa being main symbols of that stage, to shoulder its responsibility in confronting the Zionist enemy, its practices and ambitions. We call on it to back our people’s rights, support their heroic resistance and bolster their insistence on national soil, Al-Quds and sanctities.

“O ye who believe! Give response to Allah and His Messenger when He calleth you to that which will give you life;”

Long lives Arab Islamic Palestine
All sacrifices for the sake of Al-Quds and the Aqsa
Greetings to the Mujahideen and to all our Palestinian people especially our people in proud Aseera Shamaliya
Allahu Akbar and victory to our people and our nation

The Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas – Palestine)
Sunday 27 August 2000