A top leader of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization called WND today to claim responsibility for the ax murder of a 13-year-old Jewish boy yesterday.
Much of the Israeli media, however, is claiming the attack was perpetrated by an unknown assailant.
The terrorist leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s declared “military wing,” said the attack was carried out to avenge the Feb. 12, 2007, assassination of Hezbollah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh. He said the attack was carried out by members of what he called the Imad Mughniyeh Brigades, which he said is composed of Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades gunmen.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades later released an official pamphlet taking credit for the attack and also put out a statement to that affect on the group’s website.
The 13 year old was killed, and another boy, age 7, was moderately hurt when a Palestinian attacker entered the Jewish community of Beit Ayin in the southern West Bank between Jerusalem and the biblical city of Hebron. The community is particularly easy to infiltrate since its inhabitants refused to build a security fence, explaining such protection would be a sign of weakness. The Palestinian terrorist used an ax to attack the two boys.
The ax murderer was thought to have fled the scene of the attack. Israeli security sources said there is good information on the exact identity of the killer and that the Israel Defense Forces was searching for him.
Asked by WND for comment, Abbas’ office refused to condemn the attack.
Much of the Israeli media, meanwhile, is claiming an unknown assailant carried out the attack. Such claims were run in Israel’s Haaretz and Maariv newspapers and by Channel 2 News. The exception was Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s leading daily, whose military correspondent, Alex Fishman, reported Fatah was behind the attack.
U.S. and Israeli policy considers Fatah to be moderate. President Obama supports talks to create a Fatah-led Palestinian state.
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