Yesterday’s terror attack in Tel Aviv, in which at least 17 Israelis were injured when a Palestinian terrorist boarded a bus and attacked commuters with a knife before being apprehended by Israeli police, is increasingly seen as occurring in an environment of Palestinian anti-Israel incitement.
There has been increased incitement to violence in recent months by Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah officials, which was recognized by Secretary of State John Kerry in the aftermath of November’s attack on the Har Nof synagogue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast blame for the latest attack on the PA’s leadership: “The terrorist attack in Tel Aviv is a direct result of the poisonous incitement being disseminated by the Palestinian Authority against the Jews and their state.” Several members of Hamas, a terrorist organization which last year joined the PA in a unity government, praised the attack. One, Izzat al-Rishq, based in Qatar, called it “heroic and brave.”
Cartoons appeared in the Palestinian media glorifying the attack. These cartoons are reminiscent of the Palestinian social media campaigns for a “car intifada” after several terrorists used their vehicles to run down pedestrians in the Jerusalem area.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev said, “Hamas, by praising this morning’s attack, is once again demonstrating what Hamas is: a brutal and vicious terrorist organization….President Abbas…cannot have it both ways. He can’t link arms with world leaders in Paris to condemn terror when he links arms with Hamas back at home.”
The assailant was identified as 23-year-old Hamza Mohammed Hassan Matrouk, a resident of the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank. In a CCTV video, Matrouk can be seen stabbing a pedestrian in the back while being chased by officers of the Israel Prison Service who happened to be nearby. In an initial interrogation, Matrouk reportedly told Israeli police that he was motivated by, among other things, the recent tensions in Jerusalem and last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
The chairman of the Labor Party and leader of the opposition in the Knesset, Isaac Herzog, called for an “uncompromising war on terror, in any place where there is a threat on Israelis.”
[Photo: The Telegraph/YouTube]