Senior member of Islamic Jihad

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Senior member of Islamic Jihad
* "We will not lay down our weapons. . ."

2/2/2007

Muhammad Al-Hindi, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, has little patience for Palestinians who speak words of reconciliation with Israelis. Consider, for instance, his reaction to a speech delivered at the Aqaba summit by former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Abu Mazen, who, calling for an end to the armed Intifada, declared: "We will exert all of our efforts using all our resources to end the militarization of the Intifada, and we will succeed. The armed Intifada must end, and we must use and resort to peaceful means in our quest to end the occupation and the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis. And to establish the Palestinian state . . . our goal is clear, and we will implement it firmly and without compromise: a complete end to violence and terrorism."

In response to these words, Muhammad Al-Hindi said, "Abu Mazen handed [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon, for free, the only card that was in the hands of the Palestinian people - legitimate resistance to the occupation - without getting anything in return. . . . We will not lay down our weapons, because the weapons of the resistance are the weapons of the Palestinian people, and only when the occupation ends and disappears from our land will we be able to talk about that."

In May 2004, al-Hindi was the target of an assassination attempt by the Israeli army, in retaliation for two deadly Islamic Jihad attacks that had killed a number of Israeli soldiers the week before. The failed assassination attempt consisted of two attacks from the air. In the first strike, a helicopter fired three missiles at a three-story Gaza City building that housed Islamic Jihad's headquarters, destroying the edifice; five people were wounded, but al-Hindi was not among them. A second strike hit al-Hindi's home, slightly injuring twelve people.