The Palestinian Authority has “consistently” shown a commitment to peace with Israel, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday, days after a group tied to its ruling Fatah faction claimed responsibility for two terrorist attacks.
“The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which the U.S. designated as a terrorist organization decades ago, has claimed responsibility for these attacks,” a State Department spokesperson told JNS. “Despite some historical linkages in the past, it is important to note that this group is separate from the Fatah party,” the spokesperson claimed.
According to Washington, the Western-backed P.A. has “consistently recommitted itself to peace and has been and remains a partner in terms of advancing the key interests of security and stability for all.
“We are continuing discussions with the P.A., key partners, and the Israelis on ‘day-after’ planning for Gaza, to include governance, security and reconstruction,” the spokesperson confirmed. “And as we’ve said before, the Palestinians need to be at the center of all that.”
On Monday, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, claimed responsibility for a drive-by shooting that killed three Israeli police officers near Hebron in Judea.
In an announcement posted on official channels, the Fatah militia praised the terrorist who carried out the “Tarqumiya operation,” naming the perpetrator as Muhannad al-Aswad from the nearby town of Idhna.
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that al-Aswad had links to the Fatah party and once served as a member of Abbas’s presidential guard.
On Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades declared responsibility for Friday night’s double car bombings in the Gush Etzion area of Judea.
The terrorist group warned that its operatives would continue to “pursue the occupier [Israel] at every intersection, alley and neighborhood, until it is expelled from our land and our holy sites, Inshallah [‘God willing’].”
Support from Fatah
Arab media routinely describe the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as Fatah’s “military wing,” and the ruling Palestinian faction has long expressed support for the terrorist organization, which Ramallah pledged to disband under an agreement with Israel brokered in July 2007.
In a statement issued during the 2014 Gaza war (“Operation Protective Edge”), the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said that “Fatah’s Central Committee, Fatah’s Revolutionary Council and the regional Fatah leadership are supporting us, and they praised our Brigades’ efforts to attack the oppressing enemy [Israel].”
Brigades leader in Gaza Abu Al-Muntasir Amar stated in 2017: “The rifle of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades exists alongside Fatah’s political track.”
Also that year, Abbas received in Ramallah Rafat Jawabra, a former Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist commander who spent 15 years jailed in the Jewish state for his part in plotting a failed bombing attack on a Judea supermarket.
Meanwhile, under its “pay for slay” policy, the P.A. disburses monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and the families of slain terrorists. The so-called Martyrs Fund is enshrined in Palestinian law, granting terrorists or their next of kin the right to receive lifelong payments.
Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre in Israeli communities near Gaza, the P.A. has added thousands of Palestinians to its list of those who qualify for terrorism stipends, an Israeli watchdog reported in January.
P.A. officials announced that 3,550 more terrorists imprisoned in Israel would qualify for payouts, as will the families of more than 20,000 slain “martyrs,” according to Jerusalem-based Palestine Media Watch.
