Palestinians expressed satisfaction over a condolence letter sent by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the family of Mu’taz Hijazi, the Palestinian suspected in the attempted assassination of Jerusalem right-wing activist Yehuda Glick. “I salute the President,” wrote one user in a Hamas forum on Facebook.
In the condolence letter, Abbas wrote: “Hijazi died as a martyr while he was defending the rights of our people and our holy places.” (Arabic link)
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a harsh condemnation of the condolence letter, quoted by I24NEWS as saying:
As we attempt to calm down the situation, (Abbas) sends condolences over the death of a man who attempted a vile murder. It is time for the international community to condemn these acts.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman emphasized that the letter that Abbas sent to the Palestinian family proves more than anything that Abbas “is indeed a partner: a partner for terror, terrorists and murderers.”
In a response to Netanyahu and Lieberman’s statements, a leading Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds (Arabic link), stressed that Israel continues its campaign of incitement against the Palestinians.
Hijazi was killed by Israeli policemen in a Thursday morning shootout that developed as they attempted to arrest him in connection with Yehuda Glick’s shooting the night before. Glick, who was hit at point blank range by four bullets in his torso and abdomen, remains hospitalized in a serious condition. Glick is a veteran activist promoting Jews’ right to pray at the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism and also houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site.
East Jerusalem has been in a state of unrest for weeks now, which intensified after the Glick shooting. Meanwhile, Hamas said that Palestinians in East Jerusalem need to increase their attacks against Jewish targets, including suicide bombings. The movement also threatened to bomb all the territory of Israel with rockets (Arabic link). Other Palestinian factions also threatened to break the truce with Israel and fire rockets from the Gaza Strip (Arabic link).
[Photo: MEMRITVVideos / YouTube ]