“The previous years of my life were nothing but a religious and military preparation for this honorable and blessed moment.”
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
Hamas terrorist Fadi Abu-Shkadem, who fired at Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, murdering Eli Kay and wounding four others, was “at the highest level of happiness and willingness, to crown years of hard and continuous work and to meet Allah,” hours before he carried out the attack, a will he purportedly left behind states.
The will, which has not been independently verified, was circulating on Palestinian social media before being picked up by Hebrew media.
“Since when my feet have been rooted in the mosque and since I have been imbued with the Koran and the Sunnah, I have been dreaming of the coming meeting with Allah as a Shahid. The previous years of my life were nothing but a religious and military preparation for this honorable and blessed moment,” Abu-Shkadem purportedly wrote in a testimony left behind for his family and students.
To his family, he allegedly wrote “be patient, sacrifice yourselves in the hope of repayment in the next world, be steadfast and know that I have chosen this path out of a desire to please Allah and out of [an intention] to merit Allah’s heaven. The shortest and most successful life is the one who invested them in Allah and managed to sacrifice his soul for Allah.”
The terrorist, who was a teacher by profession and received a salary from the Jerusalem municipality, also wrote to his students recounting how he taught them the stories of ancient Islam, and “today, I leave you to join them and go their way. To continue in this way, the way of the prophets and the righteous, which is not wrong.”
He taught Arabic and religious studies at the a-Rashidia School, near the Rockefeller Museum on Sultan Suleiman Street.
Finally, the purported will addresses the Arab residents of Jerusalem and called on them to wage Jihad and cleave to Islam, which he said will solve all their problems.
The testimony is a glimpse of the disquieting connection between Islam, religious fervor, and murderous terrorism.
Some reports indicate that Abu-Shkadem visited Turkey several times. According to the defense establishment, he met with Hamas members who directed him to carry out the attack. His relatives claimed in the interrogation that he was in the country to visit his son in university, alongside his other investments.
The terrorist’s wife was arrested on the Allenby Bridge upon her return to Israel from Jordan, after she was reportedly deported from the country. According to a source, she claims she visited her mother who is ill with cancer.
Abu-Shkadem was a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp, aged 42, and affiliated with Hamas. He visited the Temple Mount on a regular basis and is said to have been involved in Islamic classes and tours of the Temple Mount.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called the of Abu-Shkadem family and expressed his condolences and said that “Abu-Shkadem’s blood was shed for the liberation of Jerusalem.”
The leader of the Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nahala, also called the family and expressed his condolences. In the conversation, Nahala said that what Abu-Shkadem “did to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an extraordinary milestone in the annals of the jihad, which will become a turning point in the path of resistance,” because Abu-Shkadem “connected religious study and preaching with the actions of the Jihad.”
Israel forces continue to investigate and search for aides to the terrorist.
World Israel News staff contributed to this report.