The Tulkarem explosion under the leadership of the Rapid Response Battalion
The Tulkarem Battalion is an armed Palestinian militant group affiliated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which however has strong operational and decision-making independence and is composed of fighters from various Palestinian political and armed factions.
The Tulkarem Battalion first appeared in March 2022 in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank and is based in the city of Tulkarem and its camps, Tulkarem and Noor Shams. The battalion initially emerged at the end of 2021 as a group part of the Al-Quds Brigades although it became independent in March 2022 with its founder Saif Abu Labdeh, and then became a Battalion of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in early 2023 under the name “Rapid Response Battalion” under the leadership and command of Amir Abu Khadijeh.
Israeli forces have been trying to defeat the Tulkram Brigade for almost a year now.
Tulkarem is a city of about 150,000 inhabitants, located in a historically agricultural region of Palestine, which was right on the border of the cease-fire line after the 1948 war.
The most famous figure of the Palestinian armed resistance of the 2000s in Tulkarem, essential for understanding the current situation, is Raed Al-Karmi, the leader of the then-armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israeli special forces killed him in January 2002.
Raed Al-Karmi, Abu Falasteen, was known as the 'Hawk of the Brigades' and the most wanted man in Palestine. Raed always had a deep love for Palestine and the resistance. Even before the age of 18, Raed suffered arrests and torture. When he turned 18, he joined the armed resistance. He became famous for his modus operandi of “revenge and liberation” or as “the master of rapid response”, as he organised and conducted revenge operations within 24 hours of the burial of a Palestinian martyr killed by Israeli security forces. He stated in a short statement: “Our message to Sharon and Peres and any Zionist leader: we will carry out military operations. We will respond internally for any act committed against a Palestinian, with an immediate and direct response”.
In 2001, the IDF attempted to assassinate him three times. In June 2001, Raed survived after two rockets were fired at his car. On two other occasions, he survived explosive devices. The Palestinian Authority itself, following an agreement with the US and Israel, tried to arrest him in 2001, without success. Raed was killed by IDF with an explosive near his home in Tulkarem on 14 January 2002.
His funeral was attended by thousands of people. Vengeance was announced at his funeral: “We swear by Allah, by your blood, by our covenant, by the soil of Palestine, by the people of the fig tree and the olive tree, by blessed Al-Aqsa, and by the blood of the martyrs, that we will avenge you, O Raed, as you avenged those who came before you, as you avenged Al-Aqsa, as you avenged the martyrs of Al-Aqsa”.
The entire West Bank went on a rampage to avenge their martyr and leader. For the first time, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades sent their fighters into the occupied lands to carry out martyrdom operations, and in just one month, 133 Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed in response to Raed’s murder.
However, Raed’s story does not end with his martyrdom. His martyrdom inspired the future birth of other battalions. Almost two decades later, in late 2021, a 20-year-old Palestinian, Seif Abu Labadeh, created an armed cell in Tulkarem for the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Labadeh was killed in an Israeli ambush between Tulkarem and Jenin in April 2022.
Shortly afterwards, another group emerged in October 2022, the “Nest of Hawks”, an attempt by two Palestinian fighters to revive the legacy of Fatah's armed wing in the city, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
One of them was Ameer Abu Khadija, 24, who graduated from university a few years earlier and had worked as a policeman in the Palestinian Authority security forces. After being dismissed, he decided to join the resistance. The other was Jihad Shehadeh, 24. Shehadesh was the son of a Fatah loyalist and a former member of Fatah’s famous “Black Panthers” group in the 1980s. Shehadeh and Abu Khadija formed a group that called itself part of the 'Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades' called 'The Rapid Response'.
The choice to name the battalion “Rapid Response” was a reference to the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Tulkarem during the Second Intifada, Raed Al-Karmi, as written.
Shehadeh and Abu Khadija chose this nickname for their group, indicating that a new generation was picking up the armed resistance legacy of Fatah and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Tulkarem.
In late February 2023, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians in a raid in Nablus. This violent operation prompted the three Tulkarem resistance groups to unite and form the “Tulkarem Battalion - Rapid Response Forces”. The Battalion came into being on 22 February 2023 at the behest of Amir Abu Khadijah, who was determined to renew the confrontation in Tulkarem. The youth of the city chanted, “Awake from your slumber, Tulkarem! Today we have a brigade”.
In early March 2023, a group of masked gunmen read the brigade’s first statement before a small crowd in Tulkarem's main square. The man reading the statement was Amir Abu Khadija. His statement, disseminated via video to several channels, stated the following:
“O glory of the nation, O our brothers in Jenin and Nablus and throughout the West Bank, we express our condolences to you and ourselves for our martyrs. Our pain and your pain are one, and our blood and your blood are the same. There is no difference between you and us, except that you have beaten us on the path of glory and honour. By God, we will join you. O our great people, who exude great patience that drives the enemy to forcefully denounce your name out of fear, O you who remained the fuel of the revolution, O you who gave the precious and their souls for the sake of their religion and our Aqsa. Our hope in you is great and our trust in you is great to join us so that we can form a compact/solid structure that cannot be torn down. We stand before you today to announce the formation of the Rapid Response Battalion. We tell the fragile occupier that all entry into our city is forbidden. Be careful, we have announced the mobilisation”.
Amir did not care about factions, but prioritised resistance, so the Rapid Response included fighters from all factions, including those from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad brigades. The colours and symbols chosen, however, as well as the political connection, were those of al-Fatah and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Exactly one month later, and as the wave of resistance grew, Amir was martyred in a heroic firefight. He wrote in his testament, a few days before his death: “I do not fear disgrace, death, but rather I fear missing the opportunity, and I have full confidence that our city contains, in its alleys, neighbourhoods and camps, a group of the best, honourable and free young men who do not accept humiliation and disgrace. They are fully prepared to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah and the homeland. All of them are destined to one day find their righteous path and correct their course, because we are born to be fighters and lovers of the homeland. We are asked to choose between battle and humiliation. And we will not accept humiliation. O my soul, when death approaches, do not show cowardice or humiliation. Either we die honourable and dignified by firing bullets as resistance fighters or we live humiliated under the mercy of the occupiers. O Allah, grant us steadfastness, victory or martyrdom”.
After Amir’s death, other leaders emerged, such as Samir Al-Shafi' and Hamza Khreyoush, both of whom were martyred in May 2023 after carrying out several military operations together. After them followed Jihad Shehadeh, martyred in November 2023. All these leaders were brought up in the idea, principles and memory of Raed Al-Karmi, raised with the desire to follow his legacy, swearing revenge, swearing resistance and swearing liberation.
In 2022, only 4% of resistance operations started from Tulkarem. After the founding of the Rapid Response Battalion and the operations led by Amir and the subsequent martyred leaders of Tulkarem and Nour Shams, 20 per cent of military resistance operations were from this area in 2023. Today, the Nour Shams and Tulkarem camps are the focus of almost daily battles and military operations. Tulkarem has emerged as a hotbed of resistance, becoming a model of resistance to be followed and which could, with Jenin and Nablus, ignite the fire of mobilisation and lead to the uprising of the entire West Bank.
In conclusion, what is particularly new in the current wave of armed resistance is that these battalions, like the Rapid Response, are not linked to central leadership, but operate with great independence, making it more difficult for Israel and the IDF to destroy or stop them by killing their leaders.
Daniele Garofalo is a researcher and analyst on Jihadist Terrorism, Islamist Insurgents and Armed Groups. He is an expert in Monitoring Jihadist Media Channels and Islamist rebels and Armed Groups.
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