Fighters against regimes and occupiers in Israel and Myanmar

In Myanmar, under the leadership of the National Unity Government (NUG), ethnic rebel groups  are fighting in the jungle clashes with troops of the military junta. These include guerrillas from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), People’s Defence Forces (PDF) and Karenni Nationalities Defence Force. Due to a lack of weapons and basic resources, they use homemade drones and improvised explosives. “I wish I was Ukrainian,” says guerrilla Khu Ree Du, envious of the supplies of weapons to Ukraine from Western governments. “Here, we have been fighting against dictatorship and genocide for more than a year and it is as if we don’t exist,” he adds. There are young people fighting in the ranks of the opposition because “teenagers like me are dying in hundreds every week from famine, air raids and even executions, but nobody cares. That’s why the youth have to fight,” underlines one of the fighters.

The Lions’ Den armed group was formed  in Nablus in the occupied West Bank and gained notoriety for its attacks on Israeli checkpoints and settlements as well as Israeli soldiers. In an operation codenamed “Break the Wave”, involving almost daily   air strikes and resulting in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, Israel attempted unsuccessfully to break its ranks of mostly young men personally affiliated with the four main traditional Palestinian political parties: Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. However, they form an inter-fractional organisation without belonging to or taking orders from any party. The group’s members have abandoned their disputes and focused on fighting the Israeli occupation.