JERUSALEM – The Hamas terror group rejected a claim of responsibility for yesterday’s Jerusalem shooting massacre in which eight yeshiva students were killed when a terrorist shot up their school library.
A Reuters article today quoted what the news service said was a Hamas official who was speaking on condition of anonymity from the Gaza Strip to take credit for yesterday’s attack.
“The Hamas movement announces its full responsibility for the Jerusalem operation,” Reuters quoted the unnamed Hamas official saying.
The news agency then quoted what it said was a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing who called the attack “an honor we have not claimed yet.”
But in interviews with WND, senior Hamas officials denied the Reuters claims.
“When we carry out attacks, we hold full press conferences and we announce we did it. We take pride in our holy martyrdom. This attack wasn’t us,” said Abu Abdullah, who is considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’ so-called military wing.
WND today quoted Israeli and Palestinian security officials stating the Jerusalem shooting was planned on behalf of the Hezbollah terrorist group by an activist from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization.
Israel, coordinating with Palestinian intelligence services, has specific information the bloody massacre was financed by Hezbollah and was planned in the West Bank city of Bethlehem by Muhammad Shehadi, a Fatah activist who ran as a Fatah candidate but lost in the 2006 Palestinian elections.
Yesterday, the terrorist gunman infiltrated the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, located near the entrance to Jerusalem, and fired hundreds of rounds at students studying in the building’s main library, killing eight students and wounding about a dozen.
Scenes of the yeshiva’s blood-soaked floors and of bodies being lined up outside the yeshiva’s library were broadcast on Israeli TV. Prayer books, torahs and Talmud texts stained with blood were carried from the building.
The head of the ZAKA emergency services – among the first to arrive at the yeshiva following the attack – described the scene as a “slaughterhouse.”
The fatalities have been identified as Yochai Lipschitz, 18, of Jerusalem; Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shiloh; Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar; Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem; Roey Roth, 18, of Elkana; Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15, of Neveh Daniel; Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat; and Maharata Trunoch, 26, of Ashdod.
To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.
