May 16th, 2021

Written by mom, translated by me.
(some of her more elegant wording sadly lost in translation)

Report on the situation in Palestine
May 16th, 2021

The background for the recent events, as well as the reasons behind them, are the same as they were for all previous clashes: the people of Palestine fight against a colonialist, military occupation through any means available to them, while the occupier applies brute force in an attempt to maintain and expand their hold over the territory they occupy.

Here is a documentary where you can find the details of the zionist colinization process on the palestinian territory:

Al Nakba Movie - Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MTdXChyTlY&ab_channel=aljazeeratalk

Al Nakba Movie - Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyqWNr-INvI&ab_channel=aljazeeratalk

But in the current scenario, two incidents pushed the situation towards generalized rebellion:

1) The zionist military repressing muslims on the Al-Aqsa mosque during the entire month of Ramadan, which ended on thursday the 13th;

2) The colonialist advances on the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, where palestinians have been forcefully expelled from their homes, which are then handed over to zionist settlers.

All of this concurs with the date that marks the massive expulsion of palestinians from their own country to create the State of Israel, May 15th of 1948.

So this is not a novel situation, as you can see, but the people of Palestine have come to the end of their patience.

Thus the palestinians in Jerusalem began protesting, and those in other parts of the country followed. An international campaign was started to act in defence of Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque and the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

This culminated in the different factions of the palestinian armed resistance issuing a threat to Israel: stop the aggressions on Jerusalem or there will be a response.

Israel then began bombing Gaza, where the Joint Operations Command of the Palestinian Resistance resides.

The Resistance, in turn, responded by carrying out their threat: on Monday, May 10th, at 18:00hs, they fired rockets at israeli military positions in Jerusalem, an israeli military vehicle stationed north of Gaza and against Tel Aviv.

Israel ramped up the bombing of Gaza and the resistance continued to retaliate. That's where we've been at ever since.

As of May 16th: in Gaza, israeli bombings have left many dead and many more wounded, destroyed residential buildings and civil infrastructure, including schools, mosques, shops and international press offices. In the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), some have died and at least three thousand have been wounded at the hands of israeli soldiers and settlers, over 800 palestinians have been incarcerated by israeli forces as well. And in the occupied territories -- the parts of Palestine converted into Israel -- israeli police have abducted around 700 palestinians and killed one in the occupied city of Al-Lid.

But all of this is *also* not novel.

The novel thing is that the response of the armed resistance has, this time, demonstrated an unprecedented military capacity:

More than 3000 rockets have been fired by the resistance in only six days, causing damages in ports, airports, a gas extraction platform, a chemical plant, an oil pipeline, an electric power plant, an oil refinery, several military bases and in cities occupied since 1948, including Tel Aviv. In the closing hours of sunday, May 16th, the resistance has warned Israel that if their brutal bombing of Gaza continues, they will fire rockets at the highest tower in Tel Aviv. The resistance also reminded Israel that if a ground invation is to take place, it will only grant them the opportunity to capture more israeli soldiers, adding to the 4 that are already captive in Gaza, 2 of them since 2014.

They don't just make idle threats.

And while the resistance missiles fall on Israel, the native population has rebelled in all of Palestine since Monday, May 10th, with massive protests on the streets, facing israeli police and settlers with stones, molotovs and even firearms. And they have declared a general strike all across the country -- from the river to the sea.

In addition to this, hundreds of thousands of civilians and palestinian refugees from the neighboring nations of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria have gathered at the frontiers under the slogan "for the victory of Jerusalem and Gaza", and many citizens of other arab countries have offered their service as combatants for a Palestine victory; some factions of the iraqi resistance have gone as far as offering their support in "money, firepower and souls".

And in the last few days, a wave of protests and demonstrations in support of Palestine have begun to appear around the entire world.

The resistance's rockets, although much less capable than Israel's US-funded weaponry, have range, precision and destructive capability that Israel simply did not expect; buildings and cars have sustained considerable damage, with fire and smoke raging on to the blare of sirens.

70% of settlers living in Israel have been taking refuge in shelters whenever the sirens announce incomming missiles. Many policemen run from palestinian protesters. The jewish state which presented itself as the safest place for jews does no longer feel all that safe: 59% of israeli jews are trying to obtain passports to other countries. And those hellbent on staying are largely the same zionist fundamentalists that have carried out pogroms against palestinians, as well as assaulting their homes, businesses churches and mosques.

What we are witnessing is the scene of a gigantic, full-blown Intifada: the people on the streets and the armed resistance responding with unprecedented force, with the support of the arab, islamic and even western people.

And all of this without the slightest intervention from the Palestinian Authority nor the PLO, except perhaps for the shameful role of the security services of the PA, which have been trying to interfere with protests in Ramallah.

As for israeli media: Yediot admitted that the resistance is winning and that the attacks on Gaza cannot continue for long. Haaretz in turn recognized the fact that the israeli army cannot continue attacking Gaza for much longer as they have to face the internal rebellion. And on wednesday, Maariv had the following headline: "The state is on fire".

And according to arab media, Israel has already appealed to different diplomatic mediators (Egypt, Qatar, UN) to pact a ceasefire -- but it's not the first time this has happened.

And the response issued by the resistance:

"The fighting does not stop, unless you put a halt to the assault on Jerusalem and the bombing of Gaza. In the meantime, the rocket fire continues; and we'll increase their range, size and number each time the enemy intensifies their aggression".

Footnote:
The Joint Operations Command of the Palestinian Resistance is composed of the armed wings of Hamas (Al-Qassam Brigades), Islamic Jihad (Al-Quds Brigades), Popular Front (Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades), Democratic Front (National Resistance Brigades), Popular Resistance Comitee (Salah Ed-Din Brigades) and also the armed wings of smaller factions. Fatah (Al-Aqsa Brigades), Arafat's party, has not been officially included, but has declared their intention to join the fighting in the West Bank.