Messages from Prisoners

A number of messages from the prisoners of the entity broadcasted by "Al-Qassam Brigades" through Arab satellite channels were followed by the entire world. These messages affected the official and popular global street to a certain extent, narrating what the world perceives as humanitarian tragedies for individuals with no fault of their own, imprisoned for 460 days in a relentless war of annihilation that continues nonstop.

 Casualties Among Prisoners

Among these prisoners are those who lost their lives due to the bombardment of their criminal army, which shows no regard for their presence, nor does it differentiate between a hospital, a residence, or a tent overwhelmed by rain, under which fall incendiary bombs killing women, premature infants, or elderly people who cannot carry themselves to safe places since, simply put, there is no safe place anywhere. Thus, those who are killed are killed, and those who are injured are injured, whether they are civilians or prisoners, without any care from the killers for the life of any human being, regardless of their religion, nationality, gender, or age.

 Layali Al-Bajj's Message  

At the beginning of this week, satellite channels aired a recorded video of the nineteen-year-old female soldier, Layali Al-Bajj, who stated that she had spent 450 days in captivity. In it, she delivered several powerful humanitarian messages to the entity’s Prime Minister—seemingly unaware of the current events, including the fact that he is bedridden receiving treatment following an urgent surgery, and that those managing the scene are the war council convening around the clock. She directed her message to the Prime Minister, whom she claimed to know personally, asking him to face her parents and inform them that she and her companions would not return. This message was aimed at pressuring the families of the prisoners and public opinion concerned about them and the events of the war, as well as exerting pressure on the entity's government and those involved in the negotiations that returned to the table to accept a deal to end the war, suggesting that there is no way for their rescue and return alive while the war continues.

 The Genius of the Image and the Choice of the Sender

The prisoner began her speech appearing in a state of severe psychological defeat, dressed in military attire—most likely the uniform she was captured in, which she clearly has not worn since her capture. "Al-Qassam" chose this outfit to inform the viewer that she is not an ordinary teenage girl, but a soldier who knows what she is saying and can understand the severity of her situation. She can also distinguish the type and magnitude of the bombardment and its source, recognizing that the missiles falling on them like raindrops in the harsh winter of Gaza are from the army she was conscripted into, which has shown no regard for their lives as soldiers or civilians, and continues its ethnic cleansing agenda regardless of the safety of its own soldiers.

 Psychological State of the Captive

The captive appeared to be in a state of severe psychological weakness despite her apparent physical strength; this suggests care that perhaps the children of Gaza, who are rising continuously around the clock, do not receive. However, her humanitarian words were sharp against her government’s leader and their army, as she directed direct accusations at them for being complicit in their killing as long as they pursued the same policy of continuing the war. She even accused them of intentionally sacrificing them.

 Distress Messages

She concluded her remarks by sending distress messages to her family and that of her injured colleague, who is awaiting certain death unless the war is immediately stopped through some form of agreement.

 Mobilizing the "Israeli" Street

The "Qassam" (the military wing of Hamas) excelled in choosing the person to carry these messages to mobilize the "Israeli" street against the daily genocide. They also timed the resumption of negotiations again to exert humanitarian pressure on the silent world, especially since the tragedy of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians did not move them on two levels; the first is the war of the entity, and the second is the authority of Abbas, which is complicit in killing, arresting, tracking, and coldly handing over Palestinians. This authority even closes the "Al Jazeera" office to follow the same path as the entity in killing and liquidating the cause, making it another arm against the resistance and innocent landowners in their own land.

 Sympathy and Broader Perspective

Anyone who followed the brief talk of the captive might feel sympathy for her as she is a girl and appeared to be like a scared child – while I am certain that millions around the world sympathized with her as a humanitarian case – but if the same observer were to be fair and broaden their view of the overall scene, they would see crimes that cannot be forgiven or forgotten. They would see that on the other side of the event, there are massacres that will remain a stain on humanity, one that history will not forget for all who witnessed it and hesitated to support its people, even with a word.

 Living Messages of Pain Around the Clock

Ironically, on the day the controversial video of the entity's captive was released, considered the most impactful since the onset of the war, according to analysts, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of at least 60 Palestinians in a single day, along with dozens of injured, including children and women, due to airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since the dawn of Saturday, January 4. Media outlets broadcast scenes of mothers bidding farewell to their sons, including some who were saying goodbye to their only child with a stunned gaze, refusing to believe the news.

 Multiple Causes of Death

It is no longer solely the bullets of the occupation that are killing the children of Gaza; rather, the factors of death have multiplied, with many causes, including freezing to death due to the extreme cold. The world recently witnessed the heartbreaking scene of twins who died of cold and hunger not having reached ten days old! The world also saw the state of tents in Gaza that offer no shelter from rain, do not protect from cold, nor provide a place where a child can rest a little before death strikes at any moment. Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), stated that children in the Gaza Strip are freezing to death due to the cold weather and lack of shelter!

 Destruction of Shelters

They bombed the schools that were sheltering them, they bombed the hospitals where they sought refuge, and they bombed the mosques, leaving no standing wall for humans or animals to cling to. The message from the captive was painfully human, but there are hundreds of daily messages that come through the satellite channels that are more painful, more horrifying, and more intense, and they do not stop for a moment, day or night. Those piercing messages say: There is a people being exterminated in plain sight of the world, that there are doctors being kidnapped from their hospitals and tortured, that there are thousands of girls like “Liri” who have no refuge, no shelter, and no hope for life even until morning, and that there are thousands of families who cannot demonstrate or hold sit-ins in front of a church or in front of the prime minister's house to protect their children and work for their return. All of these are preoccupied with a tent to drain rainwater, or busy burying their loved ones who are being eaten by dogs in the disaster-stricken streets of Gaza, or occupied in carrying containers to seek some warm and non-existent meals that the children bring back, either returning empty-handed or not returning at all.

 A Call to Humanity

The world that followed yesterday's message and sympathized with one of them must listen with another ear to these painful cries and see with both eyes before all of humanity pays a heavy price for its disgraceful silence about what is happening. It truly was a painful message humanly, but it was also a brilliant message to be added to the genius of “Al-Qassam” in everything it offers. Will it bear fruit in stopping the senseless slaughter and give an entire people the chance to grieve as befits humanity, to gather their wounds and bury their martyrs? Or will it pass like its predecessors to messages without awakening the conscience of the oblivious world?

About a quarter of a century ago, the young Palestinian resistance mujahid Nidal Farahat hurried to the home of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), to inform him that it had flown 5 km. Sheikh Yassin, sitting in his wheelchair, greeted him with a smile and asked, “What flew, my son?” Farahat replied, “The rocket.”

Realizing that Farahat was referring to the “Qassam” rocket, Sheikh Yassin, who was well aware of Nidal's work, told him, “If you can develop it to reach 10 km, I will kiss your head.”

Encouraged, Nidal kissed his Sheikh's head and rushed back to his workshop to increase the speed of the first rocket launched in the history of the Palestinian struggle from the Gaza Strip towards the nearby occupation settlements.

This story recounts the experience of launching the first rocket from Gaza by one of the resistance fighters who dedicated himself and his family's home to the resistance and who was behind the first rocket and drone.

Nidal Fathi Rabah Farahat was born on April 8, 1971, in the Al-Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza. From a young age, he grew up loving the mosques and sacrificing for the sake of Allah to liberate the land of Palestine. He was diligent in attending religious lessons, particularly Quran recitation sessions. He completed his secondary education in his neighborhood schools in Al-Shuja'iyya and then enrolled at the Islamic University of Gaza.

He was the elder brother of the resistance fighter Mohammed Farahat, who carried out a martyrdom operation in the "Atzmona" settlement south of the Gaza Strip in 2002, killing nine Zionist soldiers. His other brother Wissam was martyred during the last aggression on Gaza, where he was the commander of the Al-Shuja'iyya battalion in the “Al-Qassam Brigades.”

Nidal participated in the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, known as the “Stones Intifada,” where his mother urged him to join the Muslim youth, leading him to join the ranks of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) at that time. On February 5, 1993, Farahat joined the “Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades,” the military wing of Hamas. He spent five years in Israeli prisons and was also detained three times by the Palestinian Authority's security forces.

Nicknamed the “Rocket Engineer,” he devoted his life to developing military industries for the “Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades.” He had the honor of manufacturing the first rocket and was martyred before realizing his dream of making drones.

Nidal was the eldest son of “Palestine's Khansa,” Um Nidal Farahat. He spared no effort in developing Al-Qassam weaponry, launching the “Qassam 1” rocket with the martyr commander Tito Masoud. He then focused on further developing Al-Qassam industries.

His work in launching the first rocket came after a long career of confronting the occupation, whether in the “Stones Intifada” (1987-1993) or guerrilla warfare with the “Al-Qassam Brigades.” He assisted the guerrilla warfare leader of the 1990s, martyr Emad Aqel, who used Nidal's home as a refuge and was martyred after being besieged when leaving it. Nidal personally buried him.

The “Al-Qassam” website indicates that Nidal was the first to manufacture a rocket in all of Palestine, entering the esteemed gate of honor and dignity of jihad and resistance.

In a television interview, his mother, Mariam Muheisen, known as “Palestine's Khansa,” Um Nidal Farahat, said: “One day, Nidal came to me, never hiding his secrets from me. He came extremely joyful, more than I had ever seen him, and said, 'Oh mother, Allah has honored me with making the first rocket in Palestine.' I was very surprised!”

She added, “I held this rocket and thanked Allah the Almighty for this great achievement. I recited the Quran over it, hoping that Allah would bless the tremendous efforts exerted by the Al-Qassam Brigades members. Then I prayed for him and his brothers from Al-Qassam for success and steadfastness, asking Allah to guide their steps towards victory and empowerment.”

Nidal transferred his experience in manufacturing “Qassam” rockets to the occupied West Bank. He was the first to introduce the “Al-Qassam” rocket there, teaching his comrades how to make the rocket and explosives by providing them with diagrams and detailed maps.

Starting from October 26, 2001, when the “Qassam 1” rocket was announced, martyr Nidal Farahat, upon the request of the then-general commander of the “Al-Qassam Brigades,” Salah Shehadeh, dedicated himself to developing “Qassam” rockets. A few months later, the “Qassam 2” rocket was announced, followed by the “Qassam 3.”

While he ended his jihad journey with the dream of deploying gliders for missions inside the occupied Palestinian territories, this dream was realized 11 years later during the “Operation Protective Edge.”

The occupation assassinated him along with five “Qassam” mujahideen on February 16, 2003, in a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza. They were preparing a small drone, the parts of which he had brought from the 1948 territories. Later, the “Qassam” named that drone “Ababeel.”

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1. Al-Qassam Brigades website
2. net
3. The Palestinian Information Center Website

Read the Article in Arabic