Reem Al-Rayashi, a 22-year-old mother of two from Gaza, became the first female martyr of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the seventh Palestinian woman to carry out a resistance operation against the Zionist occupation. Her martyrdom marked a pivotal moment in the history of resistance, as it symbolized a bold evolution in the tactics of the Qassam Brigades, as it was the first time they prepared a female fighter.
On the morning of Wednesday, January 14, 2004, Reem carried out a martyrdom operation at a Zionist military checkpoint. Wearing an explosive belt, she approached the checkpoint under the guise of obtaining a magnetic card, misleading occupation soldiers by claiming she had a platinum implant in her leg that would interfere with their security detectors. In the midst of their preoccupation with her, Reem advanced and detonated the explosives, killing four soldiers and injuring ten others, four critically.
Reem’s sacrifice resonated far beyond the immediate loss inflicted upon the enemy. It was a statement of defiance against imperialist oppression and a challenge to the structures of Zionist colonialism. Her martyrdom shattered stereotypes, embodying the courage and agency of Palestinian women within the struggle for liberation. Reem al-Rayashi was not just a martyr—she was a symbol of resistance, carrying the banner of dignity and defiance in the face of relentless occupation.
Below is a text of a speech she gave declaring her intention before carrying out her operation, and below you will find a translated version of her will, a letter addressed to the women of Palestine:
“Allow me to address you in the last speech before the operation I intend to carry out, hoping that God will accept my martyrdom and help me kill the largest number of occupying Zionist soldiers. I address you without the men because I no longer see men in our nation except for the remnants of them in Palestine and Iraq. You are the remaining hope for this nation after it was devoid of men, and you are responsible for leading this nation to victory and to honor and dignity after the pseudo-men brought it to this humiliation and shame that covers it from east to west. You are the ones who will carry the banner of this nation and raise it high among the banners of the nations that live on this planet of ours after the pseudo-men among the rulers, scholars, intellectuals, and those who call themselves elites lowered their banners. From your wombs, O women of the nation, will emerge children who will restore the glory of this nation, writing it with their blood and limbs. From the children of this nation will emerge those who were raised to throw stones and face tanks with their bare chests, to first save this nation from its rulers, then from the betrayers, hypocrites, ostentatious and obstructive, and finally to save it from the usurping Zionists; and to restore its status before the spiteful Westerners and Easterners. As for the pseudo-men, I advise them to abandon the talk that no longer nourishes or satisfies, and to abandon the flattery, hypocrisy and prayers for the rulers for righteousness and success, and to retire from the pulpits on which they stand, for they are not worthy of it.
“And I advise them to add the feminine nun to their descriptions and names and the feminine taa to their actions, for they are more deserving of it and worthy of it.” Pray to God for me, my brothers, that He accepts me as a martyr tomorrow, for I hope to meet Him, and I long to bear witness before Him for my nation, my era, and my time. I long to bear witness against the rulers of humiliation and treason. I want to bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every ruler who abandoned our Jerusalem, our Palestine, and our people. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who cut off the miserable and meager aid to our children in obedience to his master in the White House. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who extended his hand to the Jews and cut it off from his Muslim brothers. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who fought his people and abandoned the war of his enemies. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who lived for his throne instead of his people and every one who sold his country in exchange for his rule. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who displaced the honorable people of his nation and his subjects and replaced them with drummers, flutes, and those who glorify Him in order to restore order to the Zionists and those who support them. I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against every one who makes excuses of inability while he purges the nation of those capable of change out of fear! That change may reach him, I bear witness before Him, the Almighty, against everyone who stole the nation’s money and transferred it to his own account and the account of his family, relatives and supporters, and left his people panting after crumbs so that he could not think about the calamities that are raining down on the head of this nation. I long to reach my Lord as a witness against the scholars of this nation who were preoccupied with fatwas on marriage and divorce from the cannonballs and missiles that are raining down on us, and who were preoccupied with fatwas on usury and its permissibility from the Zionists’ permissibility of our blood, honor, homes and trees, and who were preoccupied with fatwas on obeying the ruler and not rebelling against him and praying for his reform from the matter getting out of the hands of the nation and from obeying the ruler and his allegiance to the enemy. I want to testify that they are mute devils who only say what will perpetuate their positions, perpetuate their livelihood, and perpetuate their health. They interpret what is no longer open to interpretation, and remain silent about the truth where there is no longer open to silence. They ward off strife, they claim, where there is no longer strife. Rather, we have reached the catastrophe while they are asleep, watching. They fight each other, accuse of disbelief, immorality, innovation, and misguidance whomever they want from their brothers in faith. Then they remain silent about the ruler and his hateful sins, and command people to listen and obey, and shout in the faces of critics: This is the lesser of two evils. I want to testify specifically about the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Tantawi Abdul Mubarak, which I will not reveal to you because it is a secret between me and my Creator. I want to testify against those who call themselves the intellectuals and elites of this nation, who rise up and do not sit down when the ruler points his finger, and their tongues are released like the tongues of biters, reaching three times the length of their bodies, and they devour the flesh of the loyal sons of the nation who dare to speak ill of the ruler’s dog, and then their tongues return to their throats to swallow it if the ruler points another finger. The elites who are lost between appeasing the ruler and speaking the truth, between preserving one’s life and preserving one’s dignity. After my martyrdom tomorrow, God willing, you will hear a lot of talk about me throwing myself into perdition.
Some may come out saying that I committed suicide, and some may come out saying that I am a fool who abandoned her children and did not respect the sanctity of her husband and family. To these people I say: Leave my poisoned flesh alone, and the crumbs that the ruler throws to you to eat and the waste on which you raise your children are enough for you. As for me, I believe that the Provider of me and the Provider of my children after me is my Lord who raised me and will take charge of raising my children after me. As for you, you believe that the owner of the newspaper you write in is the Provider, and that the owner of the station you speak from is the Provider, and that the Minister of Endowments who appointed you is the Provider, and that the ruler who runs the slave farm on which you live is the Provider. So congratulations to you for this belief of yours and congratulations to you for this faith of yours. One day you will know who is the true Provider, who is the true Educator, and who holds the kingdom of everything, and He protects and is not protected. Finally, I say to Chirac, who wants to ban the veil in France for Muslims: I ask you, after banning Muslim women from wearing the veil, to impose it on Muslim men, starting with their rulers, and to also force them to cover their humiliated faces because they have become shameful things that no one should see, neither in the East nor in the West. In conclusion, I ask you for a good prayer in absentia, and I recommend to you Palestine, Al-Aqsa, Iraq, and all Muslim countries, for they are a trust in your necks all”
– Reem Riachi