‘One of a series of responses’: Hamas takes responsibility for Ariel terror shooting

Hamas’s military wing claims responsibility for a terror shooting that left an Israeli security guard dead at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Friday night.

“This operation is one of a series of response operations to the defiling of our Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and aggression against it,” the Izz al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades say in a statement.

A recent wave of deadly terror attacks has left 16 Israelis dead since mid-March. While Hamas has encouraged and praised the attacks, this is the first time that the terror group has taken credit for one in the current round of violence.

The attack “will not be the last one, with God’s help,” the Qassam Brigades say.

Two Palestinians — Yousef Assi and Yahya Marei — were arrested by Israeli forces in connection with the attack on Saturday from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the northern West Bank.

The victim of Friday’s attack, security officer Vyacheslav Golev, 23, was laid to rest in Beit Shemesh in central Israel on Sunday.

While Hamas has consistently lauded those who have carried out terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent years, such declarations of credit are far more rare, with analysts speculating that it will draw Israel to issue a response of its own.