Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s chief in the Gaza Strip, this week declared that “no power in the world” is able to stop the surge in attacks on Israelis carried out by Palestinians.
Haniyeh said: “We are ready for political and popular unity at all levels and willing to agree on a united national strategy to protect the intifada, regain Palestinians’ rights, and adhere to the inalienable nationalistic principles”.
He added that while “some people thought that our people have tired of intifadas, revolutions and resistance”, the latest violence “came to thwart all their plans”.
Earlier this month, Haniyeh called for further unrest and the “strengthening and increasing” of attacks against Israelis. He stated that violence was the “only path that will lead to liberation”.
On Friday, a Gaza preacher held what appears to be a suicide belt in the air during a sermon, stating that the next attacks would include suicide bombings.
The cleric, Abu Hamza Ashur, vowed that these missions will “turn [Israelis] into lifeless corpses and scattered body parts”.
He called on Palestinians living in the West Bank to “shed their blood, pounce on them, dismember them, paralyze them, make the earth quake under their feet, trample on their heads”.
His threatening discourse continued: “This is what awaits you. This is your nightmare”. “We will use it to turn you into body parts, we will annihilate you with it”, he said, waving the explosive belt.
Since 1 October 2015, nine Israelis have been killed in Israel and the West Bank in over 50 stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks.
