The Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fateh, issued a statement following the re-capture of four of the six escaped Palestinian prisoners on Friday, stating “Israel’s capture of the heroic prisoner, Revolutionary Council Member Zakaria al-Zubaidi, and his fellow prisoners, the heroes Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah, Mohammad Qasim al-Ardah and Yaqoub al-Qadri, will not weaken our resolve or weaken the Palestinian people’s determination to continue to confront the Zionist colonial project that has been going on for more than a hundred years.”
The Fateh party statement, issued by the Information and Culture Commission, continued, “The re-arrest of the Fateh leader Al-Zubaidi and his companions will only increase the resolve of both our prisoners and our people to move forward in our struggle, and our resistance to the hateful Israeli occupation, and to achieve our goals of freedom and independence.
“The occupation army and security forces brutal assault of Al-Zubaidi and his companions when re-arresting them is a violation of international law, which provides for the protection of prisoners and calls on occupying powers not to harm prisoners, noting that the Israeli government bears full responsibility for these war crimes, for harming the lives of our heroic prisoners.
“The Palestinian masses stand behind the prisoners and their cause, and the Palestinian people will not stand idly by if any prisoner is harmed, whether the four who were re-arrested, or the two who are still enjoying freedom, and all our heroic prisoners in the occupation prisons are steadfast and proud.”
The Fateh statement criticized the silence of the international community on the crimes of the Israeli military occupation, and their racism against Palestinian prisoners, calling on the United Nations and international human rights institutions to intervene quickly and force the Israeli state to respect international law in how it deals with Palestinian prisoners.
Fateh pledged in the message to “support all our prisoners – they are the crowned jewel of the Palestinian resistance – and we will continue the struggle until they are freed. The issue of our prisoners will remain at the top of the movement’s priorities until the last Palestinian prisoner is liberated from the prisons of the occupation.”
