A member of Abbas’ ruling Fatah party said that “the Martyrs’ blood will continue to illuminate the path to liberation through our national unity.”
By World Israel News Staff
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sent his condolences to the family of the terrorist who killed three Israeli civilians in a Tel Aviv shooting attack earlier in April, framing the violent murders as a glorious act for the “defense of Palestine.”
Jenin District Governor Akram Rajoub, a member of Abbas’ ruling Fatah party, released a statement expressing his sympathies to the families of Ra’ed Hazem, who perpetrated the Tel Aviv terror attack and was killed during a shootout with Israeli authorities, and Ahmed Al-Sa’adi, a Jenin resident who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli soldiers as they attempted to arrest terrorists.
According to an article from the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, “Rajoub conveyed the condolences of [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas over the deaths of the Martyrs of Jenin.”
The article, which was translated from Arabic to English by Palestinian Media Watch, also stated that “[Rajoub] emphasized the role that the Martyrs fulfilled in the struggle, in their defense of the land of Palestine, and he added that they insisted on defending our people’s honor and [acted] for the sake of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, while united under the flag of Palestine.”
Praising the terrorists, Rajoub said that “the Martyrs’ blood will continue to illuminate the path to liberation through our national unity, so that we will fight the settlers’ extremist government and its terrorist policy, which is targeting everything Palestinian.”
The PA’s statement that Abbas expressed condolences to the Tel Aviv terrorist’s family is particularly significant as Abbas was reportedly forced to condemn an earlier terror attack in Bnei Brak by Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
In late March, Abbas released a statement saying he disapproved of the murder of Israeli civilians for the first time in years, which was widely believed to have been made only because Gantz threatened to reverse concessions to the Palestinians around entry to Israel for the Ramadan holiday.