From Vietnam to Gaza – Abu Obeida Issues New Statement (TEXT)

December 28, 2023

Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades. (Photo: Al-Qassam military media, Video grab)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, released a statement on the 83rd day of the war.

The 83rd day of the Israeli war on Gaza was rife with statements and news from the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza. They included a pre-recorded statement by the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas.

Abu Obeida issued the following statement: 

Saluting Our People 

“After 83 days since the beginning of the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, which set the Zionist entity on the path to demise and collapse by the power of Allah, and after this great steadfastness by the great, noble people of Gaza—who are part of us and we are part of them, living their pain and hopes—and after this great epic written by our fighters and our resistance, which broke the enemy and dragged its nose through the mud of great Gaza: the maker of men and conqueror of invaders.

“The greatest military salute cannot be deserved by anyone in this world as much as it is deserved by our people in Gaza, who have always been a support, backbone, and cradle for their resistance—which is from them, with them, for them, and for their cause. Words cannot do justice to our legendary people, nor can they describe their glory, pride, and greatness.

“O our nation, and all the free people of the world, we have been fighting for decades, leading up to the Al-Aqsa Flood, for our people, our land, our holy sites, and our Al-Aqsa, amidst the disgusting official abandonment of regimes and an international community governed by the law of the jungle and controlled by the Zionists of the White House.”

‘Freedom through Blood’ 

“These oppressors, murderers, and sorcerers who want to tell the world that history began from October 7th, ignore the slow, silent killing of our people for many years, the Judaization, settlements, desecration of Al-Aqsa, the siege of Gaza, aggression against prisoners, and displacement of our people by all means. Then they weep for the Zionists when we dealt their army the blow of the century and made them pay for their crimes, and told the world that we are a people seeking justice, freedom, and life.

“We have never been seekers of war and destruction. It would have been better for the western and eastern Zionists to recognize the rights of our people and end the occupation, but they preferred to buy time for the criminal occupation to annihilate our people and liquidate our cause. But we, as a people with a right, a cause, a message, and a resistance, faithful to these rights, continued to prepare and fight because we know that rights can only be reclaimed by extracting them by force.

“Every nation on earth that has been occupied has wrested its freedom through blood, body parts, and combat. We have the best evidence and proof in Vietnam, Afghanistan, South Africa, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, and others.”

825 Military Vehicles 

“O our heroic people, our nation, and all the free people of the world, we in the Al-Qassam Brigades, after eighty-three days of battle, aggression, and combat, affirm that our fighters are still in the field, confronting the aggression around the clock. 

“Since the beginning of the ground aggression, our fighters have targeted more than 825 military vehicles, including troop carriers, tanks, bulldozers, trucks, and other vehicles.

“Our fighters in all defensive positions continue to inflict significant losses on the enemy in its incursion areas, reaping the lives of its soldiers by the dozens and engaging in close combat with their vehicles and forces on the ground.

“Our fighters continue to write a historic epic and unique heroics, choosing their targets and planning to fatally strike the enemy using all available means, including machine guns, medium weapons, sniper rifles, hand grenades, explosive devices, anti-tank and anti-personnel and anti-fortification shells, and striking gatherings of forces with mortar and rocket shells.

“Our fighters also carried out special operations by re-detonating the enemy’s unexploded ordnances in its vehicles and among its soldiers, rigging buildings and blowing them up with invading soldiers, detonating minefields, and targeting three enemy helicopters with anti-aircraft missiles in the last two days.

“The state of weakness, exhaustion, and confusion of the enemy forces has become a clearly and indisputable reality, which calls everyone in our people and nation to realize their revenge against this arrogant enemy, whose soldiers are incapable of confronting the owners of the land, the right, and the will.

“We have published many, many pictures documenting our fighters targeting the enemy’s soldiers and vehicles, and this is just a fraction of the overall operations on the ground.” 

Our Priorities 

“Our priority is to stop the aggression against our people and end the criminal Nazi genocide that the enemy has been waging for 12 weeks against our innocent civilian people, following its failure on October 7th, and its further failure in the ground war.

“Stopping the aggression is the most important priority. We feel the extent of the pain, suffering, injustice, and savagery that our people face in front of the world, this official world divided between a criminal oppressor and a helpless spectator, watching a cowardly and aggressive force pour out its wrath and the accumulation of its failures on the innocent and the safe.

“The one who thwarts the aggression and stops it, humiliated and defeated, is the steadfastness of our people and our fighters in the field, breaking its objectives. 

“Accordingly, there are no exchange deals or other proposals that we can accept before the aggression against our people is completely stopped.

“The day October 7th and the days that followed entrenched it in the memory of our people, our nation, and the free world, as well as in the memory and consciousness of the Zionist occupiers. It will remain deeply engraved as a defining moment in the historic struggle of our people with this occupying entity.

“What the enemy has been doing for 83 days is an attempt to erase, obscure, and alter this significant impact in the form of the collapse and defeat of the occupation and its criminal army, but every street and neighborhood in the Gaza Strip will remain a testament to the greatness of our people and the valor of our fighters in contrast to the savagery of this enemy and those behind it who falsely claim Western civilization and human rights.”

Patience and Victory 

“Gaza has exposed all the lying and shameful organizations and institutions that carry the sword of human rights against oppressed nations, only to protect and beautify the ugly image of forces of injustice, occupation, and aggression.

“O our generous people, the epitome of patience and victory, what this cowardly enemy excels at is destruction and killing, attempting in vain what it has been repeating for decades to convey a message and idea to our people that their resistance is futile. But we say that we, along with our people in the same trench, will rebuild what the Nazi occupation has destroyed, sharing a morsel of bread and a drink of water with our people.

“This aggression will soon break and fail by the power of Allah, and our people will emerge head held high, crowned with dignity and glory. Every pure drop of blood shed from a martyr or wounded in this sacred war will bear witness to the great victory and the upcoming liberation by the will of Allah.

“Rest assured, our great people, that with your resistance, steadfastness, and firmness in Al-Aqsa Flood, you have crafted the coffin of this temporary criminal occupation. The shedding of innocent blood has always been a defining mark for the destruction, planning, and defeat of invaders. This is a certainty by the laws of heaven and the models of history and experiences of nations.

“We ask the Almighty Allah to have mercy on our martyrs, accept our jihad, heal our wounded, bind the wounds of our people, free our prisoners and path [Al-Aqsa], strengthen our fighters, and grant victory to our people and resistance. “ 

(The Palestine Chronicle)