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Following are excerpts from a program on the Al-Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on June 6, 2006.
Al-Quds Brigades commander: Brothers, the command of the naval unit of the Al-Quds Brigades has decided to carry out an operation in the sea opposite Gaza, opposite the northern border with the so-called 1948 territories. This operation is in retaliation for the ongoing policy of incursions against our defenseless people, and in retaliation for the policy of assassinating the leaders and sons of our nation.
[...]
Iyad Al-Daud, reporter: Al-Jazeera TV is plunging the waves of the sea opposite Gaza, as a guest of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: My name is Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh, "Abu Al-Walid." I am 41 years old, married with six boys and two girls. I have held many positions, and now I am a leading commander in the Al-Quds Brigades.
Reporter: Don't you have military ranks?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: The mujahideen of the Al-Quds Brigades receive their ranks in heaven, Allah willing.
Reporter: Are you trying to convince me that you are not a colonel or a major general?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: I don't need to convince you. What I am telling you is 100% true, Allah willing. We have no ranks. Our ranks are in Paradise.
Reporter: You are not an officer or a captain?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: I'm not an officer, a captain, or a general.
Khaled Mansour: I am Khaled Mansour, your brother in faith. I am 30 years old. I am in charge of the Al-Quds Brigades in a certain part of the southern region. I joined the Islamic Jihad movement when I was young, in junior high school. I joined the student activities, then I joined the popular committees, and later the military activity. At the time, it was called the "Sword of Islam Brigades," then it was called "Qasam," and later the "Al-Quds Brigades." Allah be praised, I had the honor to be part of all three organizations.
Reporter: How did you become a commander in the Al-Quds Brigades?
Khaled Mansour: I have never felt like a commander. Throughout this journey, I have been a ground soldier.
[...]
Reporter: We can agree or disagree on the effectiveness of these simple, locally-made missiles against the military arsenal of the other side. But there is no doubt that they complicate the security of Israel, which can expect an operation at any moment - by air, land, or sea.
Al-Quds Brigades missile operators: Allah Akbar.
Allah Akbar.
Get out, get out.
Quickly, guys.
Khaled Mansour: We, in the Islamic Jihad, draw our ideology and our path from the great Koran, and the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad. This is the basis for our bearing of arms. We, the Muslim mujahideen, the sons of the Koran, are the first to bear arms - not for the sake of secularism, socialism, Communism, or any sort of Ba'thist or other regime.
[...]
The organizational structure is as follows: There is a unit in charge of manufacture, called "the Technological." Of course, we have a special training unit. There are units for observation and surveillance. There are units of martyrdom-seekers, who carry out martyrdom operations, and there are special assault units, which carry out special operations.
[...]
This military wing has a joint command for the Gaza Strip. Each member of this command is in charge of a squad in a certain region of the Gaza Strip. He is at the head of the pyramid of this squad. He plans and carries out operations, in accordance with the political decisions of the Islamic Jihad movement. The squads are coordinated through the joint command.
[...]
If we wanted to recruit brothers for the Al-Quds Brigades, we could have recruited tens of thousands, but we select them on the basis of their compatibility and morals. They must be educated within the ranks of the Islamic Jihad, in receive lessons in the mosques. They must be military people, intelligent, with all these qualities.
There are more than 4,000 mujahideen recruits to the Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza Strip.
[...]
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: The Al-Quds Brigades bear arms in order to drive this occupier out of the land of Palestine - Palestine in its entirety, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
Reporter: Don't you think that the time for this kind of talk has gone?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: No, it is written in the Koran. This is our faith, religion, and Koran. It is not us who say this.
Reporter: So you don't mean only Gaza and the West Bank?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: No. Palestine from the river to the sea.
Reporter: How many of your martyrdom seekers are ready to press the button?
Khaled Mansour: Quite a few. We are ready to arm more than 100 martyrdom seekers simultaneously. However, the question is not how many, but where these martyrdom seekers will go.
[...]
Al-Quds Brigades commander: Operating at sea is different from land operations. Therefore, the criteria for selecting martyrdom seekers were very different, due to the difficult conditions at sea, and the difficult training. Therefore, the selection process was very complicated, but, Allah be praised, we managed to select two martyrdom seekers. The first martyrdom seeker, who commanded the operation, was Jamal Ismail, "Abu Na'im," Allah's mercy upon him. The other was Muhammad Al-Masri, Allah's mercy upon him. The training process lasted eight months. The martyr Jamal Ismail underwent this [training], while working with the martyr engineer Muhammad Al-Sa'afin, "Abu Rajab," the Al-Quds Brigades commander of central Gaza Strip. We worked in coordination with the military commander, the martyr and hero engineer Mahmoud Al-Zatma, "Abu Al-Hassan," one of the giants of military activity in our beloved [Gaza] Strip.
Al-Quds Brigades commander: My role in the operation at sea... I was a student of the martyr commander Mahmoud Al-Zatma. At that time, we prepared the explosive devices. These were remote-controlled devices, each weighing 150 kg. A boat carried two devices, 150 kg each.
The Palestinian military industry is based on the theory of experiments and exchange of expertise. Immediately following the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Zatma, the military production expert of the Al-Quds Brigades, his student was promoted and became chief missile production engineer. The equation is simple – once a commander is martyred, his student becomes commander, until it is his turn to be martyred.
Al-Quds Brigades commander: Allah be praised, the "Al-Quds 3" missile was developed, and it was tested on the city of Ashkelon. The Zionist enemy admitted that this missile landed on the outskirts of Ashkelon. The brothers in the Al-Quds Brigades engineering and production department are currently developing the "Al-Quds 4" missile, with a range of 15-17 km, Allah willing.
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: The weapons come from several sources. They are smuggled by the Israeli mafia, from within the Israeli entity. Some weapons are smuggled by sea. Some weapons are smuggled over the Egyptian border.
Reporter: Smuggled by sea from where - Lebanon and Syria?
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: That is the business of the smugglers. I told you that we get weapons from within Israel itself, through the Israeli mafia.
Reporter: You are talking about a lot of weapons...
Khaled Sha'ban Ibrahim Al-Dahdouh: It is an open market. I can buy you a weapon right now. What would you like? We have a weapons market, here in Gaza. This market is always open. Do you want a weapon? I will get you one right now.
[...]
Mother of martyr Muhammad Al-Sheik Khalil: Allah Akbar, even if I was given a palace with 20 rooms, I would not be happy living in it, unless I was in my homeland. Can the homeland be sold for any price, great or small? All the blood we shed and everything we do – isn't it all in order to return to our land and see it?
Reporter: Four martyrs – that was the sacrifice of the mother of the martyr Muhammad Al-Sheik Khalil, one of the most prominent commanders of the Al-Quds Brigades. When a person is measured by what he has lost, and not by what he owns – you know you are in Palestine.
Mother of martyr Muhammad Al-Sheik Khalil: I had seven children, and three are left. It is an honor for me. I am proud of them. I do not regret it, and I never will. Allah willing, I will place my head next to them in Heaven, along with all the Muslims, all the fighters. One cannot talk about this or that faction, and say: This faction is Hamas, that one is the PFLP, the Fatah, and so on. They are all [waging] Jihad for the sake of Allah. By Allah, you can either believe this or not, but I made a vow to give three of my children. I made a vow to give three of them to Allah, and to the Jihad for the sake of Allah. But they surpassed this, and four [were martyred], Allah be praised.
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Jamal Ismail: We, the sons of the Islamic Jihad and the Al-Quds Brigades, are following the path of martyrdom, and of victory over the murderers of the prophets, the enemies of Allah, and the enemies of the homeland and of humanity.
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Reporter: I wonder, is the situation of the Palestinian resistance similar to that of the explorer Columbus, who got lost and discovered America by chance, and died thinking he had discovered India? Or maybe it holds the boat of strategy and the oar of insight, as it waits for the winds of fortune to lead it to complete liberation.
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Khaled Mansour: The lie of Ben Gurion and the accursed Balfour must be rectified. If it isn't rectified by our own hands, we must, at least, shake the Zionist entity, and prevent it from becoming rooted in our land. This is the very least. We advise our mujahideen brothers: If you are unable to liberate Palestine inch by inch, you must prevent the Zionists from becoming rooted in occupied Palestine.
At 23:30 on November 22, 2002, the 17th day of Ramadhan, we received a phone call from our martyrdom-seeking brothers, Jamal Ismail and Muhammad Al-Masri. They told us that an Israeli dabur boat was coming towards them, and that they could hear it. All of a sudden, there was shooting all around them. They called us during the shooting, and told us that there was shooting next to their boat, and that projectors were being directed at them. I asked them what their moral was like, and they said it was high, and they could not wait to meet their God.
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