Fatah-aligned Aksa Martyrs Brigades call for terror attacks against Israel

Leaflet warns against "Judaization" of Palestinian land; declares Friday day of "mobilization against the cowardly Zionist occupier.”

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas terrorists mark anniversary of Schalit swap 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)
Hamas terrorists mark anniversary of Schalit swap 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)
A leaflet distributed on Tuesday by the Fatah-affiliated Al- Aksa Martyrs Brigades called for launching "fedayeen [guerilla] operations" against Israel as of this coming Friday.
The group called on all its “units and sleeping cells” to start launching attacks against “the Zionist enemy.” It said that Palestinians should regard Friday as a “green light from our consciences to all our units and sleeping cells” to launch terror attacks against Israel.
The leaflet said that the attacks would be launched in protest against Israel’s alleged efforts to “Judaize and divide” the Aksa Mosque.
The leaflet was apparently issued by Fatah activists in the Gaza Strip, a Fatah official in the West Bank said.
He said he did not believe that the group’s West Bank branch had been consulted about the call for resuming terror attacks against Israel.
Declaring Friday as a day of “popular mobilization against the cowardly Zionist occupier,” the group called for initiating confrontations with Israel at the border crossings between Palestinian territories and Israel.
“We call upon our people to participate in a popular intifada on Friday in honor of the blood of the martyrs and to defend our land and Aksa Mosque, which is being subjected to Judaization and division,” the leaflet read.
Ahmed Assaf, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, warned Israel against “continued incursions into the Aksa Mosque by settlers and extremist Jewish groups.”
He was referring to routine visits to the Temple Mount by Israelis.
Assaf said that the visits may “sabotage the peace talks and international efforts to achieve a two-state solution on the 1967 borders.”
He also warned that the visits could plunge the entire region into extremism and violence.