Guess Which ‘Moderate’ Palestinian Terrorist Group Participated In the October 7 Massacre

By Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE    28 May 2024

Pictured: A terrorist from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades brags about the atrocities he and his comrades committed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)

• [Other groups that] participated in the October 7 massacre…. include Palestinian Islamic Jihad — and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah faction headed by none other than the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas.

• The involvement of terrorists from Abbas’s Fatah faction in the October 7 slaughter and terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, however, may surprise some people. Many in the West consider Fatah, which dominates the PA, to be a “moderate” party that wants to live in peace and harmony with Israel. This rumor may have come about because we have been told many times by Palestinian officials that Fatah’s armed wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was dismantled (at least in the West Bank).

• Earlier this month, Abu Mohammed, the official spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, revealed that the group’s fighters participated in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip.
• In another recent video, Fatah claimed responsibility for a “sniper operation” against Israeli soldiers in Jabalya refugee camp, a stronghold of Hamas and PIJ in the Gaza Strip. The Fatah terrorists said that they used a Hamas-manufactured rifle called Al-Ghoul to target the Israeli soldiers. The video is clear evidence that Abbas’s Fatah loyalists have been working in coordination with Hamas.
• That Fatah participated in the October 7 massacre and other terrorist attacks shows that there is really little if no distinction between Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah, and Hamas. It also demonstrates why, after Hamas is removed from power, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority absolutely cannot be trusted to rule the Gaza Strip. Both Fatah and Hamas continue to engage in terrorism and are outspokenly proud of their attacks on Jews. Fatah and Hamas seem, in fact, to be competing to prove to the Palestinians who is carrying out more terrorist attacks against Israel.
• So long as Abbas and Fatah are producing and arming terrorists, all plans by the Biden administration to “revitalize” the Palestinian Authority are worthless. If the Biden administration is sincere about reforming the PA, it ought to begin by insisting that Abbas disband his own terrorist organization and stop endorsing terrorists and compensating them with monthly payments. Until then, handing over the Gaza Strip to Abbas and his Fatah terrorists would be a monstrous mistake.

The war in the Gaza Strip, which erupted after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, is not limited to Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group. Other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip are involved in the fighting against Israeli troops. Those groups also participated in the October 7 massacre. They include Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah faction headed by none other than the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas.

It should come as no surprise that PIJ took part in the October 7 massacre, as well as countless other terrorist attacks on Israel. Like Hamas, PIJ is an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist organization that aims to destroy Israel. Similar to Hamas, over the past few decades, PIJ has carried out thousands of terrorist assaults against Israelis, including shootings, suicide bombings, firing rockets into Israel, as well as stabbings and car-rammings.

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