The Palestinian people started their acts of resistance after the First Zionist Congress in 1897 was held. The Congress called for establishing a Zionist state on Palestinian soil, occupying Palestine, and nationalizing the Jews under the slogan ‘a land without a people for a people without a land’. The Palestinian resistance took different forms throughout the years, and changed in accordance with the political and economic circumstances of each stage.

Revolutions in the 20’s and 30’s

Several conferences were held in order to prevent the Zionists from achieving their goals. The Palestinians also organized popular demonstrations, which started peaceful but turned somewhat violent as to reject Zionist presence in Palestine.

The situation remained the same until a graver stage started when the Palestinians directed their rage at the British occupation which was a close supporter to the Zionists and their ideology of occupying Palestine. The most prominent revolutions were Yafa Revolution in 1929 and the Great Revolt in 1936, during which the Palestinians carried out limited armed operations against the Jews and their accomplices.

1948 War:

The situation developed, and the activities increased as the number of Zionists immigrating to Palestine, especially from Russia, rose. The confrontations peaked in the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 that resulted in the defeat of the recently-independent Arab armies, the victory of the Zionist gangs and the establishment of the Israeli occupation’s ‘state’ on Palestinian soil, excluding the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Resistance Work:

The occupation continued its atrocities, but in 1964 the PLO was founded. It, then, announced its belief in armed resistance against the Zionists and declared its national charter that aimed to liberate Palestine from the Zionists. The Organization moved  from one Arab country to another, and carried out powerful operations that hit the Zionists. Examples are the Battle of Karameh in Jordan and Lebanon invasion in 1982.

The last station was Tunisia, where the PLO felt isolated and weak, so they had to attend Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. The Conference was an introduction to a settlement deal between the PLO and the occupation. In 1993, the two signed Oslo Accords, upon which the PLO recognized ‘Israel’ as a legal Zionist state established on Palestinian soil, and conceded 78.8% of lands; and the Palestinian Authority was founded. The PA worked on isolating the resistance movements (mainly Hamas, Jihad and the Popular Front), and rejected armed operations against the Zionists.

The PA could not prevent the resistance movements from continuing their work against the occupation. The PA depended on the international support, was weaponized and funded by them, and was introduced to the policy ruling the world. Other movements, however, were contained by the Palestinian people, and did not depend on international support at first nor did they have a clear strategy. These movements would join popular and peaceful demonstrations without having a unified leadership, but this changed after sometime.

Al-Hijara Intifada:

The resistance movements encouraged the Palestinians and spread the Islamic and national spirit among them. The popular uprisings and protests against the occupation first started using stones, but soon after the confrontation methods developed in 1987 when Molotov was used, tires were set on fire to block the soldiers’ vision, and knives became a popular weapon as the Zionist passersby were stabbed. The martyr Basel Al-A’raj carried out a stabbing in 1989, and the leader and martyr Emad Aqel carried out armed operations in 1990; he would shoot at the Zionist jeeps and take down soldiers point-blank using primitive weapons.

Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister, once said, “I wish I could wake up one day and find that Gaza has sunk into the sea”. The occupation used body torture and bone breaking as a policy to cause the participating Palestinian youth permanent disabilities. Despite all attempts, the Palestinians continued to fight for their freedom.

The First Intifada ended in 1993 after the PLO and the occupation had signed the Oslo Accords. However, the Palestinian people waited to see a change in their living conditions and to feel dignity and pride once more. Unfortunately, nothing changed. In 2000, Ariel Sharon, Head of Likud, visited Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa accompanied by hundreds of Zionists and under the protection of the Israeli government. The Palestinian people immediately headed to the Masjid and Al-Aqsa Intifada began.

This stage was a turning point in the history of the conflict between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation. Palestinians no longer depended on stones and Molotov only in their fight against the Zionist soldiers. They started carrying out martyrdom operations in Zionist buses and jeeps inside the occupied lands. Such operations resulted in many deaths. Engineer Yahya Ayyash, the first engineer in Al-Qassam Brigades, managed to build explosives out of organic materials used in agricultural fertilizers.

Al-Aqsa Intifada:

Despite the assassinations of several military commanders, who carried out several operations against the occupation and its accomplices, in Palestine; the Palestinians continued to fight for the liberation of Palestine. 2001 marks the first time for the launch of a locally-manufactured rocket at Sderot settlement, that is near the Gaza Strip. Al-Qassam commander Nedal Farahat and a group of his companions were the ones to fire the rocket. He had hoped to operate reconnaissance aircraft that belonged to the resistance as well, but he died before it happened.

Development of Resistance’ Weapons

The Palestinian resistance continued to use rockets to disturb the lives of the settlers in the Gaza Strip until they gave up and withdrew from the Strip in 2005. The resistance proceeded with the development of its rockets until they manufactured a rocket that reached 160 km (in Haifa). In the 2014 aggression, the resistance announced having different types of reconnaissance aircraft that could monitor and attack.

The resistance also improved its naval Commando Unit, which carried out a naval operation in the occupied Tal Qatif in 2004. The fighters managed to kill three Zionist soldiers before their martyrdom. The Palestinian people was overjoyed to learn about the strength of the Unit and its fighters, and were especially encouraged when the Unit reached Zikim shore and blew an Israeli tank.

In addition, the resistance developed its sniper unit through developing a long-shot sniper called ‘Al-Ghoul’; named after the engineer martyr Adnan Al-Ghoul.

The Palestinian resistance sacrificed several leaders and commanders, some of them are Engineer Yahya Ayyash, Emad Aqel, Ahmed Al-Ja’bari, Raed Al-Attar, Mohammed Abu Shammala, Mohammed Barhoum and many others.

Until this day, the Palestinian resistance spares no time nor effort to develop its methods and strategies, and has set a clear strategy making it a lot similar to other world regular armies.