![Protesters march through the streets of Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus, Syria, on March 28, 2025, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans. [Bakr Al Kasem - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/AA-20250328-37473825-37473801-DEMONSTRATION_IN_DAMASCUS_IN_SUPPORT_OF_PALESTINIANS.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, has urged the new Syrian administration to release two of its commanders, detained on Sunday evening, Quds Press reported.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the movement said the two commanders, Engineer Khaled Khaled, who is in charge of Syrian ties and Engineer Yasser Al-Zafari, head of the organisational committee were arrested “without clarification” and in a manner “we did not hope to see from our [Syrian] brothers whose land has always been a haven for loyal and free people”.
The statement added that as the Palestinian resistance has been fighting the “Zionist enemy” in the Gaza Strip for more than a year and a half, without surrender, it hopes to “receive support and appreciation from our Arab brothers, not the other way around”.
The Al-Quds Brigades emphasised that “since its inception, its rifles have only been aimed at the enemy’s chests and have never deviated from its primary goal, which is the complete liberation of Palestinian territory”.
The Islamic Jihad movement is one of the Palestinian factions that did not leave Syria after the fall of the former Syrian regime, since it did not fight alongside the regime.
This is the first time Palestinian officials are arrested in Syria while more than 13 Palestinian factions operate in Syria, some of them have left Damascus.
READ: Islamic Jihad says disarming is surrender and green light for extermination of the Palestinians