25 February 2000

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Mercy-giving

The wave of arrests of Mujahideen will only increase the fighters’
determination to continue their resistance, and on the threats by the Zionist
entity’s leadership against the people of Lebanon, its land and children

In a Zionist attempt to raise the morale of its army and citizenry after the painful blows inflicted on them by our people’s heroic Mujahideen, and after the series of defeats that the heroic Islamic resistance has inflicted upon the Zionists in south Lebanon, the Occupation Authorities have announced that they are carrying out a campaign of arrests, picking up dozens of Mujahideen members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades who have carried out numerous armed operations in recent months, and  who, the Zionist authorities believe, planned to blow up a large residential building.

The Zionist enemy’s attempt to exaggerate the importance of these arrests, presenting them as a great achievement, will not benefit the Zionist enemy . It will not raise their sunken morale. These arrests are no different from other such campaigns that take place from time to time and to which our people have grown accustomed in the course of their open and continuing struggle against the rapacious Zionist enemy.  The Mujahideen have always shown that they are stronger than all forms of repression and tyranny, stronger than the waves of arrests.  No such attempts will be able to divert them from their course or shake their resolve to wage a holy struggle and resistance in

defense of their land, their country, and what they hold sacred.

The threats against Lebanon, its people and children, that the Zionist enemy’s foreign minister made – threats that were affirmed and supported by the terrorist Prime Minister Ehud Barak – show clearly the breakdown and collapse that the Zionist entity and its military staff are experiencing as a result of the defeats they have sustained at the hands of the brave Islamic resistance in south Lebanon.  The hysterical terrorist threats against Lebanon and the exaggeration of the achievements of its arrest campaign against heroic Palestinian Mujahideen also expose the Zionists’ need to search for victories, even if they be imaginary victories, to hide their own impotence and to raise the morale of their people and their defeated army.

Resistance and opposition to the occupation will remain the firm policy of the Hamas movement and of all sincere members of our people.  All the campaigns of repression and arrest will only increase the determination and resolve of our people and our heroes to continue the holy struggle, to attain martyrdom in defense of our land, our Jerusalem, our holy places, and for the liberation of our country. . .all of our country!

Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas - Palestine