Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – A group of Palestinian youths announced the establishment of a new group in the West Bank city of Hebron to fight Israel. The Palestinian youths from the Fatah, Hamas, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad said in a video uploaded to the Internet Friday that the goal of the “National Union Brigades” is to bring about a third Intifada against Israel in Palestinian territories. The group said in the four-minute video that while it supports the UN's recognition of Palestine as a non-member observer state, it will not give up “one inch of Palestine, from the sea to the river.” “This is the beginning of a third Palestinian Intifada, which is erupting from the heart of Hebron and will spread to all of Palestine,” the group's members said. The group threatened Israel saying that if it continues to arrest Palestinians in the West Bank, they will kidnap Israeli soldiers. “If Israel kills the Palestinian people, we will kill Israelis in return and will strike Israel with an iron fist,” the group's representatives said. The group specified its goals and demands including the removal of all Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, a complete Israeli withdrawal from all Palestinian lands, an end to the Israeli assault against the residents of Hebron, the transfer of all tax revenues Israel has been withholding from the Palestinian Authority since the UN vote on upgrading the Palestinians' status, opening all border crossings and supplying electricity and water to the Gaza Strip. Tension has mounted in the last few days in Hebron as an Israeli female border guard officer shot dead 17-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Al-Salaymeh who was carrying a toy pistol. Hebron was divided into two areas according to the Wye River agreement, signed by then Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat in 1998. H1 area is under complete Palestinian control, while H2 is under Israeli security control. The number of Palestinian living in the two areas is around 150,000. The total number of Jewish occupiers living in H2 is about 400 permanent residents. Israeli government policy in H2 has forced thousands of Palestinian residents to abandon more than 1,000 homes and at least 1,829 businesses and has turned the area into a ghost town, Israeli human rights organizations B'Tselem and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.
