Several Palestinian factions praised Tuesday’s terrorist attack in the northern West Bank in which three Israelis were killed, saying it underscored the failure of the Israeli security forces to subdue the “resistance.”
The factions described the attack as a “heroic operation.”
The Palestinian Authority did not comment on the attack by Tuesday afternoon.
In some parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians were documented celebrating the attack by handing out sweets to passersby and drivers.
What did Palestinian factions say about the terrorist attack?
“The operation demonstrates the ability of the Palestinian people to continue their revolution and defend al-Aqsa Mosque from daily incursions,” Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said.
He was referring to routine visits by Jews to the Aqsa Mosque compound and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups, including the PA, regularly describe the visits as violent incursions by Jewish extremists.
“The continuous aggression against the Palestinians and the daily storming of al-Aqsa Mosque will be met with the expansion of the resistance’s strikes,” Qanou said.
Senior Hamas official Hisham Qassem said: “The heroic stabbing operation confirms that the Palestinian resistance is continuing.”
“We bless this bold operation in the Israeli settlement of Ariel, which came as a natural and legitimate response to the escalating crimes of the occupation against our people.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad statement
The recent attacks were a sign of the failure of the Israeli security forces in crushing the terrorists, he said.
“The escalation of resistance operations in its various forms carries a clear message to the occupation that its threats won’t undermine us,” Qassem said. “Instead, the threats will increase the resolve of our people and make them more willing to challenge the occupation.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second-largest terrorist group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, welcomed the “heroic operation.”
“We bless this bold operation in the Israeli settlement of Ariel, which came as a natural and legitimate response to the escalating crimes of the occupation against our people,” it said in a statement.
The attack illustrates the Palestinians’ determination to pursue the “resistance with full force,” it added.
PIJ official Muhammad al-Harazin said the attack “proves the ability of our people to continue their revolution and defend the Islamic holy sites.” He, too, sought to establish a link between the attack and Jewish tours of the Temple Mount.
The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine also hailed the attack, saying the Palestinians would continue their “resistance.”