Al Jazeera Net correspondents
Hebron“Palestine, my beloved, your concern is my concern, your wound is my wound, and your pride is my pride. You are the one who gave birth to honorable heroes from your womb, and you are the cradle of the prophets and we are. stationed on your land, we are born and on your land we die.
These are extracts from a speech that Sheikh Ziyad Abou Hilil wrote in his own hand, and to which he refers before each message he published on his page on the social network Facebook, a few hours before his martyrdom, as if he were expressing his feeling of the imminence of martyrdom. of death, but also of the realization of a hope for which he had always lived and wished, that of becoming a martyr. On the wealth of the Palestinian homeland, he had what he wanted.
And at home, in the town of Dura, near the Hebron governorate, in the southern West Bank, the story of the martyrdom of Sheikh Ziyad Abu Hilil (68 years old) dates back to dawn today, Monday, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, after dozens of heavily armed Israeli occupation soldiers stormed his house in the Dura Al-Balad neighborhood in the center of the city, and l were severely beaten, causing him to be martyred shortly after.
Among his family
In detail, Amer Abu Halil, Sheikh Ziad’s nephew, told Al Jazeera Net: “A large force of the occupation army stormed my uncle Sheikh Ziad’s house around 3 a.m. today today in an attempt to arrest me, because I made a mistake in identifying my house, in which I was not present, and after that an altercation took place between the occupation soldiers and Sheikh Ziad , the soldiers severely beat him with rifle butts and threw an iron grill on his chest.
Amer adds: “The soldiers who let Sheikh Ziyad fall to the ground among his family were indifferent, they pulled one of his sons and took him to guide them to my house, where they searched the house and tampered with his contained, and then withdrew to the sound of the voices of the sheikh’s sons and their cries after the martyrdom of their father.”
For more than 15 minutes, Sheikh Ziyad lay on the ground in difficult condition, and Amer believes he was “martyred at home” due to severe beatings before being transferred to the government hospital of Dora and that her martyrdom be announced there. said: “The Martyr Sheikh is suffering due to a cardiac catheterization operation less than two weeks ago.”
In a solemn funeral, attended by thousands of Palestinians, his body was carried past the Dura government hospital to his birthplace in the city, where his family said their final goodbyes, and then he was transported like a burden. on the shoulders of the cemetery of the martyrs (the prophet Noah) after having performed the funeral prayer over him, amidst cheers of support for his family, he praises his virtues and his position in the face of the occupation, while others condemn the crimes of the occupation and threaten. with vengeance.
Social media sites were filled with news about the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Hilil, and everyone mourned him in their own way, highlighting his activist virtues and reviewing his courage in the face of occupation, recalling photos and video clips of him illustrating this, especially the famous video with the word “Bahhamash”.
Repair and resist
In the town of Dura, Hebron Governorate, Martyr Sheikh Ziyad Musa Abu Halil was born into a struggling and devoted family. In the city, he grew up loving his land and his homeland. He became famous for his strong positions. against the Israeli occupation and its racist practices. He was known as a personality of great importance and a man of reform in the Hebron governorate.
The sheikh defines himself as “an independent national figure whose duty is to resist and stand up to the occupier,” as he declared in a previous interview with Al Jazeera Net.
Sheikh Abu Hilil was arrested, along with his family members and relatives, and detained several times by the occupation. He was subjected to severe mistreatment and beatings, but this did not stop him from continuing the fight.
He also actively participated in various popular and national events denouncing the occupation and its crimes. His name became more associated with the term “Bahhamash” in the colloquial Palestinian dialect, which means (nothing to him, unimportant), with which. Sheikh Abu Hilil responded to Israeli occupation soldiers who stormed the city of Hebron in 2015 by giving young men who resisted the right to throw stones at them and confront them.
Citizen Hassan Rajoub, son of the town of Dura, told Al Jazeera Net: “Sheikh Abu Hilil is one of the most important tribal and reforming figures, and he is also a resistance fighter in the true sense of the word. social reformer and revolutionary nationalist in the face of the occupation and its various attacks, and he in turn was socially active on social media sites as a present and influential man.
Mansour Khalil, a young activist from the city of Dura, who maintains good relations with Sheikh Abu Halil, says: “The simple and persistent Sheikh achieved the martyrdom he always desired, and a few days ago he wrote about it and wished to be martyred and buried in the martyrs’ cemetery of his city, and this is what happened.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Khalil added: “I consider him an icon of resistance and the fight against the occupation, and he never tires of it, despite being arrested, dousing it with incendiary gas and beating him several times at the hands of law enforcement. occupation soldiers, and its threats from the occupation intelligence services through direct communications.