JERUSALEM – Just days before it attended President Obama’s summit in Washington this week, the Palestinian Authority honored the families of the perpetrators of some of the notorious terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians.
The PA’s minister for prisoners’ affairs, Issa Karake, last week awarded his government’s “Shield of Resoluteness and Giving” to a mother, Um Yousuf Abu Hamid, whose four sons are in Israeli jails for carrying out terrorist attacks targeting civilians.
Karake upheld the Abu Hamid family as a “model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine,” according to the PA’s Al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper as translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
He called the mother a “central partner in the struggle, by virtue of what she has given and continues to give.”
“It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor,” Karake was quoted as saying.
Palestinian Media Watch points out the profiles of Hamid’s four sons, who are each serving life sentences in Israeli prisons:
- Nasser Abu Hamid: Seven life sentences plus 50 years for serving as the commander of Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, in Ramallah. Hamid was convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders. His Brigades is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks targeting civilians.
- Nasr Abu Hamid: Five life sentences. He is a member of the terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and was convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.
- Sharif Abu Hamid: Four life sentences. A member of one of the brothers’ units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. He accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.
- Muhammad Abu Hamid: Two life sentences plus 30 years for involvement in terror attacks.
Karake, the PA’s minister, also visited the family of Palestinian suicide terrorist Ayyat Al-Akhras, who in 2002 entered a Jerusalem supermarket and detonated a bomb murdering two Israelis and killing herself, becoming one of the youngest suicide bombers at age 18.
That attack received worldwide media attention due to Ayat’s age and gender and the fact that one of the victims was also a teenage girl, 17-year-old Rachel Levy.
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