PA: Israel "shoots to kill and for no other reason"

Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily

Headline: “The source of the terror is the state terror”

“In an interview with the Israeli [TV] channel Kan 11, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas R. Nides said that ‘Terror cannot defeat Israel.’ He added that ‘Murdering people and violence will not bear results.’ We would applaud him if, out of a desire to maintain a balance in his statements and standards, he had noted that the source of the terror is the organized state terror that Israel is implementing every day against the Palestinian people.

In less than a week, seven Martyrs for the sake of Palestine ascended to Heaven after being shot by the forces of the occupation, which shoots to kill and for no other reason! (sic., 10 terrorists were killed during their own attacks and violent riots during the week of March 27 – April 2, 2022; see notes below)…

The most important conclusion that the American ambassador should have drawn is that the organized Israeli terror also cannot defeat the Palestinian people…

We are bidding farewell to our pure-hearted Martyrs, while they are ascending to the Heavens. Yes, with a painful heart, but [also] with determination to stand firm, defy, and continue on the paths of popular resistance (i.e., term used by Palestinians, which also refers to the use of violence and terror) until defeating the occupation and removing it from the land of our state, whose capital is East Jerusalem…

‘Violence will not bear results’ – we will remain with this logical and objective conclusion, but will the Israeli occupation state support it? Will it do this, while currently it is working to arm the settlers in a way that will turn it into a state of militias, according to the decision of Israeli Prime Minister [Naftali Bennett], which he declared a few days ago (refers to Bennett calling on weapon owners to carry their weapons given the recent wave of terror attacks -Ed.)? How will there be an end to the violence with a state like this, which sets rifles free in the streets so they will kill as many as they can?”

The “Martyrs” from the week of March 27 – April 2, 2022 are as follows:

Ibrahim and Ayman Agbaria - Israeli Arab terrorist cousins who murdered 2 19-year-old Israeli border police officers - Yezen Falah and Shirel Abukarat - and wounded 12 other Israelis in a shooting attack with assault rifles and handguns at a bus stop in Hadera on March 27, 2022. Israeli undercover officers at a nearby restaurant shot and killed the terrorists to stop the attack. Ibrahim Agbaria was previously arrested in Turkey in 2016 when he tried to join ISIS in Syria. Before the attack the two terrorists filmed themselves praying in front of an ISIS flag, and afterwards ISIS took responsibility for the attack.

Diya Ahmed Hassan Hamarsheh - Palestinian terrorist and Fatah member who shot and murdered 5 people - Israeli civilians Rabbi Avishai Yehezkel and Ya'akov Yisrael Shalom, Israeli police officer Amir Khoury, and 2 foreign workers from Ukraine identified as Alexander and Dmitry - in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv on March 29, 2022. An Israeli police officer shot and killed Hamarsheh, ending the attack. Hamarsheh, from Ya'abad near Jenin, had been working in Israel illegally. He was imprisoned for 6 months in 2015 for dealing in illegal weapons and membership in a terror organization.

Sanad Abu Atiya and Yazid Al-Sa’adi – Palestinian terrorists and reportedly Islamic Jihad members aged 17 and 23 respectively who, together with other terrorists, opened fire on Israeli security forces conducting arrests of 17 terror suspects in Jenin on March 31, 2022. Abu Atiya and Al-Sa’adi were killed in the ensuing exchange of fire, as was another unidentified terrorist, and seven terrorists were wounded; on the Israeli side, one soldier was wounded.

Nidal Ja’afreh – Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and wounded an Israeli civilian using a screwdriver while they were riding on a bus in Gush Etzion south of Jerusalem on March 31, 2022. Ja’afreh was shot and killed by two other civilian passengers on the bus, ending the attack.

Ahmed Al-Atrash – 29-year-old Palestinian terrorist who threw a Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers who shot and killed him in response while he was participating in violent riots near Hebron on April 1, 2022. Al-Atrash had previously been imprisoned for 8 years – PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes.

Saeb Abahreh, Khalil Tawalbeh, and Saif Hafzi Abu Libdeh – Palestinian terrorists and Islamic Jihad members who were killed on their way to committing a terror attack in an Israeli city on April 2, 2022. They opened fire as Israeli forces attempted to arrest them, injuring four Israeli soldiers, one critically, before being shot and killed. In the terrorists' car soldiers discovered weapons and a farewell letter explaining their motivation to kill Israelis and calling on others to do the same. Abu Libdeh also made a video in which he read the letter, which was publicized by Islamic Jihad after the shootout. Tawalbeh was 24, Abu Libdeh was 25, and Abahreh was 30.

The terms "peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance" are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest and at times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves. For example, ‎Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful popular” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 ‎terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean) and hundreds wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks. Abbas said: "We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is." https://palwatch.org/page/9276