Fatah condemns Israel for killing Hamas terrorist behind rabbi’s murder
Palestinian Authority’s ruling party calls Ahmad Jarrar a ‘martyr,’ accuses Israel of sowing ‘destruction and tension’
Khaled Abu Toameh is the Palestinian Affairs correspondent for The Times of Israel
Fatah has joined Hamas and other Palestinian groups in condemning Israel for killing Ahmad Jarrar in the village of Yamoun, near the West Bank city of Jenin.
Jarrar, who is suspected of coordinating the shooting attack in which Rabbi Raziel Shevach was murdered, was armed and killed in a shootout with the IDF early Tuesday.
Jarrar’s death brought to an end a nearly month-long manhunt for the perpetrators of the January 9 drive-by shooting that killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, as he drove down the highway outside the Havat Gilad outpost where he lived.
Osama Qawassmeh, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party, Fatah, said the killing of Jarrar would be added to a list of Israeli “crimes” that contravene international law.
Qawassmeh described the killing of Jarrar as “a type of field execution.”
The killing, he added, “will not undermine the determination of our people, who will continue to remain steadfast on their lands and stick to their national rights.”
Another Fatah spokesperson, Jamal Nazzal, also accused Israel of carrying out “bloody extrajudicial killings.”
Nazzal warned of an Israeli “tendency” to turn the West Bank into a “scene for escalation and security tension so as to pressure our people and leaders, and divert attention from colonialist expansion in our state.”
Referring to the killing of Jarrar and Israeli security measures, the Fatah spokesperson said that Israel’s “terrorist and ugly practices expose the true face of the Israeli government, which seeks destruction and tension.”
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Fatah’s official page on Facebook posted a photo of Jarrar and his father, Nasser, who was also killed by the IDF in 2002. The elder Jarrar was a senior member of Hamas’s military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
Shortly after his killing, Hamas said Ahmed Jarrar was a commander of the terrorist group’s military wing.
The photo of the father and son, who were described as “martyrs” by Fatah, was accompanied by a caption quoting the Arab proverb: “This cub is from that lion.”
