Official PA daily: Israel uses kidnapping as an excuse to make "ISIS-like attack" on Palestinians
Op-ed by Hafez Al-Barghouti, regular columnist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida
“From the beginning, it has become clear that the occupation’s aim is not to find the three missing [youths], but to damage the Palestinian people and put an end to its recently achieved reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas]. Israeli military commanders and politicians say this openly. In addition, it has become clear that the kidnapper’s aim was to destroy the reconciliation and damage the Palestinian people itself. At the same pace as the kidnapping of the settlers, the perpetrator of which is still unknown, the occupation is spilling our blood, crushing our homes, abusing our people, and infiltrating [our territories] in order to turn the [Palestinian] Authority into a symbolic and helpless authority. At the same time, there are those among us who are attempting to exploit the occupation’s spilling of blood to justify the fact that it is damaging to security and [to justify] the attack on the police station in Ramallah. At a time when the occupation’s ISIS-style attack is essentially targeting our people and its interests, the ISIS-like attack on the police station indicates that there are those who wish to create anarchy among our people and reinstate a lack of control and instability, which would allow the occupation to continue its wolfish attacks.”
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as IS)- ISIS is an unrecognized state and jihadist group that has conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria. It has declared itself a Caliphate, thereby claiming religious authority over all Muslims; its goal is to bring much of the Middle East, including Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Cyprus under its control.
On June 12, 2014, three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking. Israel responded to the kidnapping by conducting house-to-house searches in Hebron and arresting hundreds of Hamas members. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.
“From the beginning, it has become clear that the occupation’s aim is not to find the three missing [youths], but to damage the Palestinian people and put an end to its recently achieved reconciliation [between Fatah and Hamas]. Israeli military commanders and politicians say this openly. In addition, it has become clear that the kidnapper’s aim was to destroy the reconciliation and damage the Palestinian people itself. At the same pace as the kidnapping of the settlers, the perpetrator of which is still unknown, the occupation is spilling our blood, crushing our homes, abusing our people, and infiltrating [our territories] in order to turn the [Palestinian] Authority into a symbolic and helpless authority. At the same time, there are those among us who are attempting to exploit the occupation’s spilling of blood to justify the fact that it is damaging to security and [to justify] the attack on the police station in Ramallah. At a time when the occupation’s ISIS-style attack is essentially targeting our people and its interests, the ISIS-like attack on the police station indicates that there are those who wish to create anarchy among our people and reinstate a lack of control and instability, which would allow the occupation to continue its wolfish attacks.”
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as IS)- ISIS is an unrecognized state and jihadist group that has conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria. It has declared itself a Caliphate, thereby claiming religious authority over all Muslims; its goal is to bring much of the Middle East, including Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Cyprus under its control.
On June 12, 2014, three Israeli teens, Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking. Israel responded to the kidnapping by conducting house-to-house searches in Hebron and arresting hundreds of Hamas members. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.