GAZA (Dispatches) – Thousands of Palestinians rallied Thursday in the Gaza Strip on the 35th anniversary of establishing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.
The rally was held in western Gaza under the motto “Our fight is to continue until Al-Quds,” and was organized concurrently with the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
Dozens of the group’s armed wing fighters were deployed in the city’s main streets, carrying rifles and wearing masks and military uniforms. They also displayed homemade rocket launchers.
Ziad al- Nakhala, secretary-general of the group, told the rally in an online speech that the recent round of tensions was necessary to express their “non-submission to the enemy in carrying out its attacks whenever and however it wants.”
“The Islamic Jihad’s decision to constantly fight and preoccupy the enemy is a vision, a position, and a duty to drain its energy and impede its policies,” he said.
Al-Nakhala noted that the movement’s fighters and leaders “will not leave their positions as long as the Israeli occupation remains on Palestinian land.”
He also said that Al-Quds was and will remain the focus of the resistance, and they “will fight in defense of our land, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and churches.”
“Israel is trying to turn the Palestinian cause into a humanitarian issue that it addresses by opening the labor market and other economic temptations to extinguish the spirit of resistance and dismantle it later,” al- Nakhala said.
He added Palestinians are creating new equations in the face of the Zionist regime, stressing that residents of the besieged Gaza Strip will spare no effort to fight off the Tel Aviv regime’s Judaization efforts in the occupied East Al-Quds and West Bank.
“The Islamic Jihad movement was set up in order to deliver the message of unity against Zionists. Our martyrs drew up their wills with their own blood, and sacrificed their lives for the sake of what they passionately believed in. Al-Quds was certainly their direction, and they fought to see Palestinian territories liberated,” he highlighted.
Nakhalah noted, “Let us give praise unto our captive brethren, especially the heroes who tunneled out of Gilboa Prison. They are the flag-bearers of resistance in the West Bank,” referring to six Palestinian detainees who escaped from the maximum security prison in occupied northern Palestine in September last year.
“It is in the best interests of the Muslim world to strengthen the Axis of Resistance, since the Israeli enemy has formed a coalition with the United States and its allies. Zionists and their aides have left no stone unturned to sever all our relations with supporters of the Palestinian cause, and isolate our nation,” the Islamic Jihad chief said.
Leaders of Palestinian factions, including the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, attended the rally, where Palestinian flags, the black banners of the PIJ, and pictures of its leaders and other fighters assassinated by the Zionist regime were raised.