Gaza – “it is not a movie, it is reality,” an oath that journalist Muthanna Al-Najjar repeated to himself repeatedly, as he wandered for more than two hours inside the so-called “Gaza envelope settlements,” and with large numbers of Gazans, they invaded the Israeli security fence separating the Gaza Strip, after… A surprise operation launched by the Palestinian resistance, called the “Al-Aqsa Flood.”
This young journalist did not expect in his wildest dreams to set foot in the cover settlements and wander through their streets and the homes of their settlers, many of whom were killed, wounded or captured in the “grip” of the resistance, led by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
An unprecedented image
Al-Najjar tells Al-Jazeera Net, “It was not a movie, even though the events taking place around me were like scenes in a horror and thriller movie. I saw martyrs and wounded, large numbers of whom still cannot be reached by ambulances to retrieve them, as well as dead and wounded settlers in the streets and inside.” “Houses.”
With great pride, the journalist says that he was one of the first to cross the security fence, just half an hour after thousands of rockets were suddenly launched from Gaza, marking the beginning of the resistance’s operation “Al-Aqsa Flood.” He adds, “No one knew what was happening. Explosions rang out in Throughout the Gaza Strip, I rushed towards the security fence, and I witnessed a burned tank. The resistance succeeded in detaining the bodies of its soldiers.”
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Al-Najjar lives in the agricultural town of Khuza’a, adjacent to the security fence in the southeast of the Gaza Strip. He is one of the most prominent young field journalists in Gaza, and he regularly covers events near the fence.
He says, “The situation was different this time, and the picture was unprecedented. The resistance launched a preemptive strike on all military sites, watchtowers, and occupation army patrols, which enabled it to reach deep into the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip, several kilometers away, without any presence of the occupation forces.”
Al-Najjar walked on foot inside the Israeli depths for about two and a half hours, and the sounds of explosions and exchanges of gunfire between the resistance fighters and some settlers echoed throughout the place, and fires burned around him in cars and military vehicles, without the presence of the occupation forces on the ground or in the air.
Touching scenes
Journalist Al-Najjar arrived at the nearest Israeli settlement, about 5 kilometers away from Gaza, and on the way there he was affected by scenes he was not accustomed to seeing in Gaza: vast agricultural areas within sight, different types of trees, and modern, wide, and clean streets. Inside the settlement, he says, he was sure of The grandparents’ talk about “the bliss they were deprived of following the Nakba in 1948.”
He carefully monitored the settlers’ homes surrounded by wide green spaces. He said, “I used to talk to myself and say, ‘These goods are our right, and our return has been achieved, even if it was partial and temporary, until the great return.’
Many of the touching scenes that Al-Najjar recorded in video clips were widely spread on satellite channels and social media platforms. Among them were:
- A settler woman hugs her two young children, while the resistance fighters covered her naked body, giving her safety and reassurance.
- A ten-year-old settler child was injured, and the resistance fighters treated him very gently.
- A seventy-year-old settler was helped by resistance fighters to sit on a small vehicle, and they treated him kindly without anyone assaulting him.
- A Palestinian ambulance was targeted by Israeli forces, resulting in the death of paramedic Marwan Abu Rida.
- The bodies of martyrs were lying on the ground, amid great difficulty for ambulances to reach them and retrieve them.
Al-Najjar, who rode a “tuktuk” (a three-wheeled vehicle) on his way back to Gaza, says, “This experience confirmed to me that the occupation army was subjected to a violent shock, and for many hours it did not know what was really going on in the field, and it took a long time before moving its planes to target Resistance fighters, and even civilians.”
An exceptional experience
The Israeli reaction during the first hours of the operation was limited to clashes between the resistance fighters and armed settlers, which resulted in martyrs and wounded, before the resistance imposed almost complete control over a large area of the cover settlements.
The Palestinians expressed a strong desire and audacity, which is not strange to them, to return to their homes and lands, which they have been deprived of for 75 years. This was demonstrated by the large numbers of those who crossed the security fence, one of whom came in his personal car and roamed the streets of the cover settlements.
This boldness was remarkable among some of the resistance fighters who were not content with just watching. They took with them on their way back to Gaza the bodies of dead people and seized settlers’ vehicles.
Journalist Al-Najjar describes this experience as his best journalistic experience, and on his personal Facebook page he quoted the Hebrew newspaper Maariv, commenting on his coverage from inside the settlements: “It is something that cannot be comprehended. A Palestinian journalist broadcasts his report from Kibbutz Bari.”
Al-Najjar was keen to emphasize the humane and moral dealings of the Palestinian resistance men with the Israeli prisoners who fell into its grip, and it succeeded in taking them within the borders of the Gaza Strip, which opens a door of hope and freedom for the prisoners in the occupation prisons.
Scenes covered in tears
In brief words, journalist Hassan Aslih told Al Jazeera Net, “Today my dream of transmitting and documenting this distinguished event from within our occupied territories came true.”
Islih, who wandered for hours in the “Kfar Gaza” settlement, one of the cover settlements, added, “Just approaching the security fence was a great risk, and the Palestinian is forbidden from accessing the lands near it.”
He documented many scenes, saying about the most prominent of them, “I saw with my own eyes a scene of 7 Israeli soldiers being pulled out, both dead and wounded, from inside an Israeli tank that was directly targeted by the resistance, inside the area adjacent to the security fence in the south of the Gaza Strip,” agreeing with what his colleague Al-Najjar said.
The first thing journalist Ismail Abu Omar said was the takbir and cheers the moment he entered the settlements. His eyes could not bear the scene and filled with tears. He told Al Jazeera Net, “For the first time, I am experiencing the scenes that we have always heard about, live and directly.”
Mustafa Al-Sawaf, a political analyst affiliated with the Hamas movement, told Al-Jazeera Net, “The occupation will be more cautious than ever in taking a reaction to its security defeat, for fear of multiple fronts of confrontation in the Palestinian and Arab arenas.”
In turn, the leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, Daoud Shehab, said, “The spark of the liberation battle has been launched, all possibilities are expected, and options are open to the resistance.”
