Today, we remember the master of the rapid response, of revenge and liberation. We remember, on the 22nd anniversary of his martyrdom, he who oversaw the deaths of 240 settlers, a leader in Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Raed Al-Karmi, Abu Falasteen, the Falcon of the Brigades and the most wanted man in Palestine. The Master of the Rapid Response.
Raed always had a deep love for Palestine and resistance. Miraculously, Raed persevered after suffering arrests and near-death experiences as a youth. When he turned 18, his stones transformed into bullets and he began engaging in armed resistance as his revolutionary thought evolved. His modus operandi was always revenge and liberation, and the entity feared him. In his time, he personally killed 12 soldiers. Known as the master of the rapid response, many of these were revenge operations carried out within 24 hours of the burial of a martyr.
“Our message to Sharon and Peres and to any zionist leader: We will carry out military operations. We will respond in the interior for any act carried out against a Palestinian, with an immediate and direct response.”
What he promised, he fulfilled. He killed killed two IOF soldiers before his friend Feras Al-Jaber was even buried to avenge him. He killed two soldiers soon after his friend and resistance leader Dr. Thabet Thabet was assassinated.
His sister says that one time, the Al-Karmi family was watching TV when they saw a 6-year-old girl crying, heartbroken about losing her father and the oppression of the colonial zionists. Raed started crying, too, and in that moment, he pledged to avenge her father. That same night, Raed went out and killed one settler and injured another.
In the year before his glorious ascendance, the zionist entity attempted three times to assassinate him, thinking he had multiple lives. In June of 2001, Raed survived after two rockets were fired at his car; Mustafa Anbas and Omar Soboh were martyred. On another occasion, he survived an explosive bullet.
Both the Palestinian Authority and zionists sought to arrest him, as they could not contain the flame of resistance he had created. The PA planned to arrest him in 2001 following an agreement with Americans, but this dissatisfied the zionists, who decided to plan to kill him that December.
Raed was brave, and his bravery inspired many who saw him as an icon; he was prepared for martyrdom at any moment. Now, he walked carefully, as zionist planes looked out for him daily. His assassination, however, came not from the sky but from the ground: Raed was killed by the cowardly zionist entity via an explosive near a church next to his home in Tulkarem on January 14th, 2002.
His funeral was attended by thousands. Little did the zionist entity know, his assassination would be among the most costly them. Revenge 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 and the olive, by the blessed Al-Aqsa, and the blood of the martyrs, that we will avenge you, O Raed, as you avenged those who preceded you, as you avenged Al-Aqsa, as you avenged the martyrs of Al-Aqsa.”
Within hours, a curfew was imposed for panicked settlers as the entire West Bank erupted to avenge their martyr and leader. For the first time, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades sent its fighters deep into the occupied lands to carry out martyrdom operations, and in just one month, 133 soldiers and settlers were killed in response.
Today, we remember Raed and all that he represents: a love for the land, for resistance and revenge, and a refusal to surrender. Raed clung tightly to the thawabet at every stage of his life, and he pledged to never stop resisting. He never did, even after martyrdom.
Yet, Raed’s story does not end with his martyrdom. The ever-resisting Tulkarem is ever-giving, from the heroic Battle of Nour Shams in 1936, in which 50 Palestinians triumphed over 500 British and zionists to today’s epics of steadfastness.
On February 22nd, 2023, a young, bearded man named Amir Abu Khadijah emerged, determined to renew the clash in Tulkarem, as Jamil Al-Amouri had done in Jenin. He emerged, to raucous joy, to announce the formation of the Rapid Response Brigade, named for Raed Al-Karmi’s enduring legacy. The youth of the city chanted, “Wake up from your sleep, Tulkarem! We have a brigade today!”
Amir did not care for factionalism, but prioritized resistance for the sake of his faith and homeland. Thus, the Rapid Response included fighters from all factions, including PFLP and PIJ, emblematic of the pulse of the homeland; formally, however, it is a wing of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Exactly one month later, and as the tides of resistance grew, Amir was martyred in a heroic firefight (Media 8). Amir is shown here engaging in one of many fierce battles, of which he was always at the forefront (Media 7).
He wrote in his will, which you may read in full here: “I do not fear disgrace, but rather, I fear missing the opportunity, and I am completely confident that our city contains—within its alleys, neighborhoods, and camps—a group of the best, honorable, and free young men who will not accept humiliation and disgrace. They are fully prepared to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah and the homeland.”
“All these guns are destined to find their right path one day and correct their course, for we were born to be fighters and lovers of the homeland.”
At the end, he quoted, as convoys of martyrs have before him, Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi’s saying: “O Allah, grant us steadfastness, victory, or martyrdom.”
As with Raed, thousands emerged to mourn their leader Amir Abu Khadijeh, who refused but to be wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
Amir’s 25th birthday would have been three days ago.
As we say, “Your birthday in Paradise is more beautiful.”
“We are required to choose between battle and humiliation…And we will not accept humiliation.
Oh my soul, when death approaches..
Do not show cowardice or humiliation.” (Media 2)
“Either we die honorable and dignified amidst hails of the bullets of the resistance fighters…or we live humiliated under the mercy of the occupiers.” (Media 3)
When asked to shoot a few bullets for fun, he denied, stating that his gun is an honorable one, aimed exclusively at the colonizers (Media 4).
About martyr Nizar Banat, he stated, “The greatest jihad is a word of truth in the face of an oppressive tyrant. They wanted to silence the word of truth so they killed you. They did not realize that they created a hero to be emulated.”
These principles, inherited by the martyrs before him, he passed on to the leaders that succeeded him.
After Amir, a thousand leaders emerged: Samir Al-Shafi’ and Hamza Khreyoush were martyred in May 2023 after having carried out several effective operations together. They were buried side-by-side under a Palestinian flag.
Jihad Shehadeh and others followed. Jihad, a leader of the Rapid Response, was martyred in November 2023.
Jihad is pictured here as a child, being held up by none other than commander Raed Al-Karmi himself (Media 9). 20 years separated the leaders’ martyrdoms, but the spirit of resistance lives through generations.
These leaders were nurtured by Raed Al-Karmi, and raised by his legacy, vowing revenge, vowing resistance, and vowing liberation.
Amir stood with Saraya Al-Quds – Tulkarem Brigade founder Saif Abu Libdeh’s mother when Saif was martyred (Media 4). And Saif’s mother stood with Saif and Amir (Media 5) when Samer and Hamza were martyred.
In 2022, just 4% of resistance operations emerged from Tulkarem. Because of Amir and the convoy of martyrs that followed, 20% of resistance operations came from Tulkarem in 2023.
Today, the camps of Nour Shams and Tulkarem seem to be waging unprecedented and unthinkable battles nearly daily. Tulkarem has emerged as a hotbed of resistance, turning into a model of resistance and changing the equation.
Today, Tulkarem has adopted Jenin’s equation: every invasion will be met with bullets and explosives. And today, those explosives are named Amir-1 and Jihad-1.
We reaffirm, in the words of the revolutionary, resisting martyr Basil Al-Araj: “Resistance is continually benefitting. Whatever you pay in resistance, if you don’t reap it in your lifetime, you will get the results later.”
Your planting has borne fruit, O Raed.
Your planting has borne fruit, O Amir.
Your planting has borne fruit, O Jihad.