Hamas and other Palestinian groups have called for stepping up “resistance” activities in the West Bank after Friday’s violent clashes, during which a Palestinian from the town of Beita, south of Nablus, was reportedly shot dead by IDF soldiers.
Palestinian sources, who identified the victim as 31-year-old Jamil Abu Ayyash, claimed that the soldiers used live bullets, rubber-coated bullets and tear gas during the clashes with dozens of Palestinians from the town during the weekly protest against the nearby Evyatar settler outpost.
Dr. Abdel Jalil Hanjal, a volunteer with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, told the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa that Abu Ayyash was still carrying his slingshot while he was being rushed to the hospital in Nablus. “The slingshot was tied to his finger,” Hanjal said. “It was cut before he reached the hospital.”
The IDF said that during the riot, hundreds of Palestinians threw stones and rolled burning tires at soldiers.
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the killing of Abu Ayyash as a “crime,” pointing out that the man was among a group of residents “defending” their land.
During Abu Ayyash’s funeral, hundreds of mourners chanted slogans in support of Hamas and its military commander, Mohammed Deif.
Hamas condemned the killing of Abu Ayyash as “a new despicable Zionist crime.”
Ismail Radwan, a Hamas spokesperson in the Gaza Strip, said that the killing of Abu Ayyash “will not stop the resistance in Beita and the rest of the West Bank.”
Radwan called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “step up all forms of confrontation and resistance” against Israel.Zaher Jabareen, another Hamas official, expressed satisfaction that the funeral turned into a show of support for Hamas.“The chants in support of Hamas and Deif prove that all attempts to intimidate Hamas members and supporters [in the West Bank] have failed,” he said, referring to ongoing separate security crackdowns by the Palestinian Authority and the IDF on the group. He too urged Palestinians to pursue the fight against Israel “by all means and methods.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said that the killing of Abu Ayyash would not stop the Palestinians from continuing the “jihad and legitimate resistance against the Zionist entity and its terrorism and aggression.”
According to PIJ, the “resistance and confrontation against Israel will escalate and will not stop until the expulsion of the occupation from all of the land of Palestine.”
The Popular Resistance Committees, which consists of several Gaza-based terror groups, said that the killing of the Beita man will “increase the determination of the Palestinian people to continue the resistance” against Israel. It called on Palestinians to step up “all forms of resistance” against IDF soldiers and settlers.