Freed Palestinian Prisoner: Armed Resistance Best Option for Defense against israel

Armed resistance is the best option for defending the Palestinian territories against zionist attacks and aggressions, said a former Palestinian prisoner, released during the recent prisoners swap between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the zionist regime.

Speaking to FNA on Sunday, Ali Abufoul called on Hamas movement to continue its either non-military or armed resistance against the Zionist regime and take more zionist soldiers hostage in any possible way.

“The armed option is the best defense against the zionists,” he stressed.

Abufoul also stressed the necessity for the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners from israeli jails, and said the issue should be underscored in any future agreements between the Palestinians and the zionist regime.

550 Palestinian prisoners walked free last Sunday in the second stage of the deal that was struck to secure the release of the zionist regime’s Gilad Shalit.

Two months after the soldier returned home after more than five years as a captive of Hamas, israel again paid the heavy price that it was forced to accept for his freedom.

But, the israeli occupying forces have arrested nearly 470 Palestinians since 18 October 2011, when 477 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for Shalit as part of the first phase of the prisoners exchange deal concluded by the israeli government and Hamas authorities.

This wave of arrests reveals that the exchange deal has not deterred israel’s policy of detention of the Palestinians; rather, israeli prisons are being refilled with almost the exact number of Palestinians that were released in October.

Even the released prisoners were not safe from harassment, as the israeli forces have regularly raided their homes, issued summons to meet with Israeli intelligence and re-arrested one individual.

The 470 Palestinians who were arrested between 18 October and 12 December include about 70 children and 11 women. The israeli forces continued to employ brutal methods of arrest, including the use of undercover Israeli forces, commonly known as musta’arabeen, who dress as Palestinian civilians in order to carry out ambushes and arrests of Palestinians from their homes and places of work. In many cases, joint army and intelligence raids occurred after midnight, where soldiers deliberately destroyed contents of the houses they were searching.