Analysis

Hebron-area home of vocal Abbas critic shot up

No injuries reported, but damage caused to house belonging to Fadi Elsalameen in Samua

By Avi Issacharoff
  • Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
 22 October 2016, 9:28 am
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, speaks during a conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, October 1, 2016. (AP/Majdi Mohammed)

Unknown gunmen opened fire at the home of a vocal critic of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas overnight Friday in the West Bank village of Samua, near Hebron.

Fadi Elsalameen, who lives in the United States, has a Facebook page with hundreds of thousands of followers, on which he criticizes Abbas and his supporters.

Palestinian officials close to Abbas have repeatedly claimed that Elsalameen operates in conjunction with Mohammad Dahlan, Abbas’s rival, or collaborates with Israel, but these claims have done little to harm Elsalameen’s popularity.

One of the eyewitnesses to the shooting later told Elsalameen that several men arrived in the village by car and asked where Fadi Elsalameen’s house was, to which the man replied that he didn’t know.

Fadi Elsalameen (Facebook)

Minutes later, the eyewitness said, he heard gunshots.

Windows of the home were broken, but none of the family members inside was injured.

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