This, as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh fans flames of the unrest throughout the West Bank against Israel.
By Erin Viner
A family at the Jewish community of Beit El is attributing a “miracle” to narrowly averting death by Palestinian gunfire on the Sabbath.
Yonatan Nizri, his wife and baby son were observing the Sukkot Festival outdoors when they were shot at by two terrorist who opened fire close to Jalazone Camp, north of Ramallah. The 25-year-old father was lightly injured by shrapnel and evacuated to a Jerusalem hospital for medical care.
An IDF Paratroopers Force conducted an operational ambush, opened fire toward the terror cell and killed one of the shooters, who was identified as member of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas organization. The second assailant was captured after a major manhunt during which the weapon shot in the attack was seized, said a joint statement by the Israel Security Agency (ISA, Shin Bet) and the military.
On Saturday, Palestinians staged “a violent riot” near the town of Qarawet Bani Hassan against IDF troops, who responded with crowd dispersal methods and eventual live fire. According to local sources, one Palestinian died and three others were wounded. and soldiers who had been operating there opened fire.
At least 47 Palestinians in east Jerusalem were arrested over the weekend for rioting.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh made a rare appearance in the terrorist hotbed city of Jenin for a personal condolence call at a mourning tent for Palestinian gunmen killed in clashes with Israeli security forces on Friday.
Jenin has “created national unity on the ground,” said Shtayyeh in praise, while flanked by masked gunmen wearing terror group insignia – as well as the father of the Palestinian terrorist Ra’ed Hazem who carried out a deadly attack in Tel Aviv last April.
“We state that the blood of martyrs and the darkness of the jail cells that our prisoners are forced to endure will not be in vain,” proclaimed the Palestinian Premier, emphasizing that “this struggle is an ongoing process, from generation to generation, victims to victims.” He went on to assert that Jenin serves as “a school of Palestinian nationality and a brother to the Shuafat refugee camp, Anata, Nablus, Rafah, Jerusalem’s Old City and to any other place that is part of the Palestinian struggle.”
Shtayyeh also held meetings yesterday in Ramallah with Egypt’s new ambassador to the Palestinian territories Ihab Suleiman, where he called for increased pressure on Jerusalem to “stop its violations and crimes” against his people.
“Palestinian blood is the driving force of the Israeli election,” declared the Palestinian Premier in a direct attack on Israeli leaders – whom he claimed commit violence against the Palestinians to garner approval from their constituents ahead of the 1 November national polls.
Leaders of the United States’-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) have been outspoken in their support of the surge of West Bank violence. “We must make sacrifices for the homeland,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas said while issuing his personal condolences to the families of two gunmen killed during a clash with IDF soldiers last July.
The PA has long honored terrorism by naming of institutions and public venues after those who attack Israelis, and creation of a derisively-known “Pay to Slay” program that awards financial compensation to their relatives an exponential scale based on the severity of the crimes.
According to a statement TV7 received from the Spokesperson’s Unit for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the revocation of entry permits into Israel for 164 family members of known terrorists operating in the vicinity of Nablus. A faction calling itself the Lion’s Den has identified as responsible for multiple recent shooting attacks in the northern West Bank.
“The security organizations are using all means at their disposal to thwart terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Let the terrorists hiding amid the civilian population of Nablus be aware that their identity is well known to the security organizations and that the path of terrorism which they have chosen will have repercussions for their families, who will no longer be able to earn their living in Israel,” said COGAT Head Major General Rassan Alian.
Over the past year, over 2,500 family members of the Palestinian perpetrators of terror attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces has denied the entry into the Jewish State.
The latest incidents come amid IDF, Israel Security Agency (ISA, Shin Bet) and Border Police Special Operations forces counterterrorism activity as part of the half-year-long Operation Waves Breaker launched by Jerusalem’s defense establishment to root-out terror elements in the West Bank to counter a deadly surge of attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people between March and May 2022.