Hamas and all the Palestinian people have been following up a number of major incidents and developments that the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and the diaspora has experienced over the few past days. The political developments that have taken place push the Palestinian people to unite in order to fight off the challenges, siege, and suspicious political deals.
The first development is the Israeli abhorrent violations and attacks on Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque to implement the Israeli schemes aiming at dividing al-Aqsa timely and spatially. The Palestinian people have defended al-Aqsa bare-chested to tackle the Israeli atrocious crackdown.
Furthermore, the Israeli occupation perpetrates violations across the West Bank including settlement expansion and engulfing the Palestinian lands, assassinating Palestinian freedom fighters, and installing new checkpoints, thus restricting the movement of the Palestinians.
Amid the absence of the Palestinian Authority that does nothing but security collaboration with the Israeli occupation, the so-called Israeli coordinator of the areas in the Israeli occupation forces goes on with imposing the occupation’s suppressive policies in the West Bank.
In the diaspora, the Palestinian refugees have been enduring schemes to liquidate their issues including displacement and citizenship. Still, the Palestinian refugees’ issue is a landmark for the misery and hardships of the Palestinian people.
In 1948 occupied territories, the Israeli occupation continues a war of judization against the Palestinains, imposing apartheid policies on them. In addition, the occupation endorses and imposes new laws constantly to vanish the Palestinian existence in the occupied territories.
Simultaneously, the Israeli occupation launches violent crackdowns on the Palestinian detainees held in the Israeli jails who have been resisting the Israeli oppression and tyranny.
Amid these important developments and the Israeli and US schemes targeting the Palestinian cause and and aiming at legalizing the Israeli occupation through normalization, the Palestinian Authority and Fatah should have responded positively to Hamas and other factions’ efforts to heal the Palestinian division, achieve unity, and rebuild the Palestinian institutions so that they could fight off the conspiracies and challenges posed to the Palestinian cause.
However, the Palestinian Authority resorted to unilateralism and monopoly of power. It has estimated that its punitive measures imposed on the Gaza Strip have started fruit. The PA has thought that the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip would revolt against resistance because they could not find bread and food, given that the PA itself has deprived the Palestinian people in Gaza of their basic needs through punitive measures.
Indeed, the PA exploits the needs of the Palestinians beleaguered in the Gaza Strip and blackmails the Palestinian public servants whose salaries have been slashed by the PA.
After preparing a comprehensive plan to create strife and tamper with Gaza’s security, PA’s security officials started to prepare for generating chaos and creating insecurity in the strip.
The PA’s security officials set Thursday, March 14, 2019, the start time to implement their vicious scheme and re-create upheaval and insecurity in the Gaza Strip.
Drawing upon their consciousness, the Palestinian people have succeeded to foil the PA-created scheme when it was at the beginning. The Palestinian people in Gaza know who beleaguers and imposes punitive measures on them. They are also aware of the fabrications about taxes imposed by Gaza-based Palestinian ministries.
After foiling the systematic insecurity and chaos sponsored by the PA security forces and led by Majed Faraj, Chief of PA’s General Intelligence Service, Hamas movement states the following:
First: Hamas confirms that it will continue its freedom struggle against the Israeli occupation regardless of the enemies’ attempts to dissuade the movement from this path. With our utmost power, we will resist the Israeli occupation until the Palestinian people liberate their lands, return to their hometowns and villages from which they were forcibly displaced in 1948 by Zionist gangs, push the Israeli occupation to remove the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, and lift the PA-imposed punitive measures. Hamas would never retreat until liberating Palestine and fulfilling the Palestinian people's aspirations in freedom, dignity, and decent life.
Second: Hamas calls on the Palestinian factions, which are major partners in resisting the occupation, to enhance and mobilize more support for the resistance. They are also invited to promote reconciliation based on the previous agreements signed by all the Palestinian factions, above all 2011 Cairo Agreement.
The movement stresses that one goal of the PA-led scheme was creating chaos and insecurity in Gaza. It also aimed at promoting rift among the Palestinian factions and fragmenting their unity enhanced after forming the Joint Operation Room of the Palestinian Resistance factions. On the contrary, the PA and Fatah have failed to include any faction in their isolated government.
Third, Hamas hails the Palestinian people’s great awareness and their rejection to plunge into the PA-orchestrated conspiracy. They massively protested on Sunday, March 17, 2019, at the Great Return March to prove that they failed this scheme. Today, Hamas reiterates that it supports all forms of resistance and that it rejects all forms of chaos and insecurity. The movement also rejects all attempts to tamper with the Gazans’ security. Hamas also demands the PA lift all punitive measures imposed by the PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The movement also stresses that the PA’s scheme aimed to foil the One-Million Demonstration of Return and Land, which is supposed to be organized on the first anniversary of the Great Return March, on March 30, 2019.
Fourth: We call on the leadership of Fatah and PA to reconcile again with the Palestinian people. History will record their crimes. They must have fought the Israeli tyranny instead of attacking Gaza.
Moreover, the enormous fabrications broadcast by Falesteen TV and Fatah-run media agencies to defame Hamas reflect the PA's malice towards Gaza with all of its components.
Fifth: We realize that the humanitarian conditions in Gaza are dire and severe. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people and endures the same circumstances. We also know that families, youth, and graduates endure severe suffering and pain. Those groups are a top priority in all of our endeavors to break the Gaza siege at all levels. We strive to secure a decent life for them. We will never rest assured but when the occupation removes the 12-year crippling siege imposed on Gaza.
Sixth: We condemn all forms of assault against Palestinian civilians. Law prevails in the Gaza Strip and organizes the lives of the Palestinians. Judicial and police bodies work to serve the Palestinians and protect their rights.
Accordingly, we express our regret for any psychological or material harm inflicted on any Palestinian citizen. Hamas calls on the security forces in Gaza to compensate for any material or psychological harm sustained by any party.
Again, Hamas calls on the authorities in Gaza to prosecute and expose the criminals who opened fire on Member of Fatah Central Committee Ahmed Hillis and the ones who assaulted Fatah spokesperson Atif Abu Saif.
Hamas stresses that the criminals who shot Fatah official Ahmed Hillis have been identified by the security forces. They are in custody right now.
On the other hand, Hamas calls on authorities in Gaza to hold the ones who threw a grenade on police officers accountable for their crime.
Seventh: Hamas calls on human rights organizations, which are respected and appreciated by the movement, to continue their work and stand for the rights of citizens. They have to fulfill their responsibility towards the Palestinian citizens wherever they reside through exposing all violations against them committed by whatever party.
Finally, Hamas stresses that the Palestinians are entitled to enjoy the right to peaceful demonstration and to freedom of expression. This stance is not new but a continuation of Hamas' position and policy regarding peaceful protest and freedom of expression.
Hamas Movement
March 19, 2019
