Senior Hamas leaders demand Palestinians attack Israelis in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
By World Israel News Staff
Senior Hamas leader Abdul Hakim Hanini urged terrorists in Judea and Samaria to take up arms against Israelis in an incendiary statement over the weekend.
Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in Judea and Samaria are “part of the total war initiated by the criminal Zionist occupation [Israel] against our Palestinian people,” Hanini claimed.
Hanini claimed that individual Israelis who scuffled with Arabs in Judea and Samaria are committing “terrorism” and that they are acting on behalf of the Israeli government “in order to implement their malicious plans aimed at displacing our people from their land.”
The Hamas official warned that “these Israeli plans will shatter against the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, regardless of the casualties that may arise as a result.”
Hanini demanded that Palestinians fight back against “settler attacks throughout [Judea and Samaria] and…Jerusalem by escalating confrontations and struggles in all arenas.”
Another senior Hamas member, Hossam Badran, urged local Muslims to act against the so-called “Judaization” of the Temple Mount, in an apparent reference to an uptick of Jewish visitors to the compound throughout the Purim holiday.
“Our people will thwart all plans for displacement and will remain a shield to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from the brutality of the occupation and its Judaization,” Badran said.
The Temple Mount compound, which is the holiest site for Jews but under the control of the Islamic Wakf organization, has seen a massive increase in Jewish pilgrims in recent years.
While the ceasefire in Gaza between Hamas and Israel expired in early March, both sides have yet to return to fighting.
Israel has carried out precision airstrikes on terrorists in the Strip that pose an immediate threat to Israeli troops.
Hamas has been steadfast in its refusal to release more hostages, demanding that Israel officially agree to phase two of the hostage agreement, which would see a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza.