Abbas’ Fatah vows revenge for death of 3 Fatah terrorists

During the last few weeks, a Palestinian terror cell had carried out a number of shooting attacks against Israeli targets. After the Israeli authorities identified the terrorists as members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade - the internationally designated terror wing of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party - and received intelligence that the terrorists intended to carry out an imminent additional terror attack, Israel sent special forces to the city of Nablus to intercept them. Three terrorists, armed with two semi-automatic M-16 rifles, were killed in the ensuing confrontation.

Responding to the incident, representatives of Fatah condemned the “assassination,” declaring that "what was before it is not what will be after it”:

“The Fatah Movement’s Nablus branch held the right-wing occupation government responsible for the escalation against our people and against the Nablus district specifically, with its latest incident being the crime of assassinating three Fatah fighters in Nablus.

In a statement issued today, Wednesday [Feb. 8, 2022], Fatah emphasized that the assassination crime is a severe escalation, and that it constitutes a turning point for everything regarding the escalation of the confrontation with the occupation, as what was before it is not what will be after it, and no one can turn back the hands of time.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Feb. 8, 2022]

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades announce the death f the terrorists and threatened:

"Our Martyrs blood has not be shed in vain, and the response will surely come, Allah willing.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 9, 2022]

The Fatah Movement Secretary in Nablus, Muhammad Hamdan, referred to the terrorists as “Martyrs” and vowed:

“‘We will not sit by idly, the people on the ground will determine what the response will be to the crime of assassination.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Feb. 8, 2022]

Hamdan added:

“The response to this crime will be on the ground, through a struggle against the settler herds and the occupation soldiers throughout the West Bank.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 9, 2022]

Finally, Hamdan emphasized:

“Fatah has instructed all its activists to escalate the activities of confrontation with this tyrannical occupation.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Nablus Branch, Feb. 8, 2022]

Fatah’s branch in Jenin referred to the terrorists as “the heroic commanders, the lauded Martyrs, the knights of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades” and declared that they were accompanying the terrorists to their wedding - a Martyr's funeral is considered wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam. Saying that the terrorists “defended our people’s honor and the firm Palestinian right with great honor,” Fatah Jenin added: 

“We commit to you to continuing [on the path], to responding to the occupation’s aggression, and to defending the existence of stolen Palestine. We commit to remaining as long as there remains a Palestinian boy or girl among us who maintains the spark of resistance and the Palestinian national principles, until [we reach] the State of Palestine and Jerusalem the capital, Allah willing.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Feb. 8, 2022]

An image accompanying the Facebook post mourned the terrorists:

Text on image: “The Palestinian National Liberation Movement – ‘Fatah’
Jenin branch
Accompanies to Heaven the heroic Martyr commanders

Adham Mabrouka (Al-Shishani) [parentheses in source]
Muhammad Al-Dakhil
Ashraf Mubaslat

Who ascended to Heaven as Martyrs due to the cowardly assassination operation that was carried out by the Zionist occupation forces on the land of Nablus in the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022

[Allah’s] mercy on their souls, Paradise will be our meeting place”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Feb. 8, 2022]

While simultaneously referring to the terrorists as “members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades,”  - i.e. members of a terrorist organization - and while ignoring the fact that Israel carried out a surgical operation that targeted terrorists who had already perpetrated a number of terror attacks and were about to carry out another terror attack, a news reader on the Fatah-run Awdah TV falsely argued that Israel does not distinguish between terrorists and other civilians:

“We must always remind our children, the entire world, that our enemy does not distinguish between any one of us – the children, elderly, and women are in the sights…

[Israeli] special forces committed a shameful crime in which they executed three members of the Palestinian people. Three members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades ascended to Heaven as Martyrs today for the sake of the homeland.”

[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Feb. 9, 2022]

Since the dead terrorists were members of Fatah - the party of PA Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas and the party to which the PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Shtayyeh and the rest of his cabinet also belong - the PA government prayed that Allah “wrap them [the terrorists] in His great mercies and have them dwell in the expanses of Paradise.” The government then denounced the killing of the terrorists demanding international intervention:

“The [PA] government condemned the terrible crime that was committed by the occupation soldiers in Nablus yesterday afternoon [Feb. 8, 2022], which took the lives of three young people from the city (refers to assassination of Fatah terrorists planning an imminent shooting attack; see note below -Ed). It demanded that the UN, the human rights organizations, and the international humanitarian organizations condemn the despicable crime and act to put the perpetrators on trial.

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 9, 2022]

While the PA outwardly declares its commitment to combat terror and is the recipient of aid focused on training and emboldening its security forces, it would appear that the PA Fatah led government clearly does not see itself as being required to combat Fatah terror.

Since the Biden administration took office, the Palestinian leadership has been lobbying to cancel the designation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a terror organization. Fatah, including its terrorist wing - the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades - is the largest and most dominant member of the PLO. The second largest member of the PLO is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is also and internationally designated terror organization. Before considering delisting the PLO as a terror organization, the US administration should demand that the PLO openly disavow Fatah, the PFLP and others of its terrorist tentacles.

Adham Mabrouka Al-Shishani, Muhammad Al-Dakhil, and Ashraf Mubaslat