AFP, published Saturday 1 July 2023 at 11:57 am.
Hundreds of Palestinians visited Gaza on Friday for the first arms display by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the area.
Visitors were invited to take photos with weapons displayed by the Al-Qassam Brigades, which had issued a public invitation.
“The resistance is an image and a memory. Take commemorative photos with many of al-Qassam’s weapons and defense industries,” the armed group’s invitation, which was circulated on social media and on posters in mosques, read.
The weapons were exhibited in Gaza City on Friday and further exhibitions are planned for Saturday in northern and central Palestine.
This is the first time Hamas has allowed people to photograph their weapons. It is strictly forbidden to approach and photograph military sites scattered throughout the Gaza Strip.
In the Unknown Soldier Square park west of Gaza City, the al-Qassam Brigades unveiled a collection of “locally made” missiles, as well as Russian-made Kornet-type missiles, rifles and anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles, as well as a drone called “Shihab,” according to the group.
At the entrance to the exhibition, a large banner greeted visitors, some of whom came with their families, an AFP journalist noted.
“I came with my family to take photos with guns and strengthen our children’s spirit of resilience,” Gaza resident Abu Mohammed Abu Chakian told AFP.
“We are proud of these al-Qassam resistance-run industries that have manufactured these missiles and weapons,” he added.
The exhibition is “encouraging and signifies that our country’s liberation is near,” said Chahada Al Dalou, a 38-year-old Gaza woman whose children used their cellphones to take photos in front of the rockets.
For Bassam Darwish, 58: “We are here because we are proud of the resistance and want to support it.”
The Gaza Strip, a cramped area plagued by poverty and unemployment under an Israeli blockade since Hamas took power in 2007 and home to 2.3 million Palestinians, has been the scene of several wars with Israel since 2008.
In May, Israeli and Palestinian armed groups clashed with airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and rocket attacks on Israeli soil.
Overall, this violence claimed the lives of 34 Palestinians, including six military commanders of Islamic Jihad (an armed movement considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union), fighters from various Palestinian armed groups, and civilians, including children. and an Israeli woman.