Palestinian Fatah: We’re Behind Kidnap, Murder of IDF Soldier

Fatah’s military wing, the Al Aqsa Brigades, on Sunday took responsibility for the murder of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan Friday. According to Israeli officials, Nadal Amar, the terrorist who killed Hazan, was not affiliated with any terror group.

Hazan was abducted Friday and murdered in Samaria by Amar, with the motive said by IDF officials to be a plan by the terrorist to trade Hazan’s body for the freedom of his brother, a Fatah terrorist who has been in jail in Israel for the last ten years. The soldier went missing Friday, and after a Shabak investigation, soldiers descended on the home of Nadal in the village of Bayt Amin, near Kakilya.

Hazan had worked together with Amar at a restaurant in Bat Yam. On Friday, Hazan met Nadal in the Jewish town of Shaare Tikvah in central Samaria, from where both proceeded to Nadal’s village, where Israeli officials said that the IDF soldier was killed immediately. Nadal dumped Hazan’s body in a pit near the village. He along with six others were arrested Saturday morning, after the Shabak gathered information on the attack.

In a statement, the Al Aqsa Brigades said that it had sponsored the murder of Hazan. “This is to inform the world that the voice of the martyrs is the strongest voice,” the group said. “The kidnapping was carried out in a complicated military action by our forces. We succeeded, despite the many roadblocks and other methods to stop us the army put up.”

The group also warned against harming Amar. “If one drop of his blood is spilled, many more plagues will fall upon you, O Zionists.”

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan hy”d Sunday afternoon. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Holon. Economics Minister Naftali Bennett slammed the Palestinian Authority and its head, Mahmoud Abbas, whom he said did not even condemn the murder. “We are 20 years after the Oslo Accords and our partner has not yet changed. No one can make peace with terrorists who murder a soldier and throw him into a pit. I have not yet heard one condemnation of these acts by Abbas. If the situation had been reversed we would surely have condemned such an act harshly,” he added.

Bennett
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Bennett

“The Nation of Israel sends its condolences to the Hazan family, whose son Tomer was assassinated by a terrorist criminal,” said Economics Minister and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Chairman Naftali Bennett Saturday evening, following the abduction and murder of Sgt. Tomer Hazan.

“Twenty years after the Oslo Accords, our partner has not changed. The murder, which was meant to bring about the release of a terrorist murderer, of one of [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas’s soldiers, reminds us who our partners are,” he added.

“One does not make peace with terrorists who throw the bodies of soldiers into a pit. Rather, one fights them without mercy,” Bennett stated.

Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) said following the murder that “The State of Israel’s absurd dance of releasing terrorists continues to threaten the security of Israel, because the terrorists have learned that we have no more red lines. I demand that any planned release of terrorists be halted. It does not bring peace – only unnecessary bloodshed, like what we witnessed today.”

Deputy Defense Minister MK Danny Danon said that the brutal murder is the result of “ongoing incitement by the Palestinian leadership.”

Abbas encourages such appalling acts, he charged, “by continuing to give grants to the murderers in the prisons.”

“Twenty years after Oslo, the Palestinians will not abandon the path of terror,” Danon stated.

Deputy Transport Minister Tzipi Hotovely responded to the news by saying it was proof that prisoner exchanges with Arab terrorist groups increase the motivation by terrorists to target IDF soldiers in this way.

“The reasoning behind the murder is tragic proof that the deals for releasing terrorists are mistakes. The Palestinian street understands that abducted soldiers or bodies are an efficient means to trade with Israel for the release of murderers,” she said.

MK Yoni Chetboun (Bayit Yehudi) stated Saturday evening that the murder is “further evidence that the release of terrorists increases the motivation for terrorism.”

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