الشرطة الباكستانية: نجاة 5 يابانيين من هجوم انتحاري في كراتشي
Jenin governor says Tel Aviv shooter not a terrorist, slams Israeli restrictions
Jenin governor Akram Rajoub on Saturday slammed the Israeli decision to impose restrictions on the West Bank area, following a deadly terror attack Thursday in Tel Aviv committed by a Jenin resident who killed three people at a bar on Dizengoff Street.
Rajoub claimed the restrictions would only lead to more violence. “When you punish all of Jenin, prevent commerce and workers, you push people into a corner. Expect him to do anything,” Rajoub told The Times of Israel.
The governor was spotted at the mourners’ tent set up by the family of the terrorist, 29-year-old Ra’ad Hazem, on Saturday.
In an edited interview with public broadcaster Kan posted to Twitter Saturday, Rajoub, who is said to represent Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jenin areas, said he does not consider Hazem to be a terrorist.
“You have pushed the Palestinian people into a corner. The Palestinian people…see murder [and] blood, and see all the criminal events…by the IDF. What is it that you want? For them to give them [soldiers] a rose, for example?” he said.
In response to a question on whether the Tel Aviv shooter was a terrorist, Rajoub said: “No, I don’t see him as a terrorist.”
מושל ג’נין אכרם רג’וב – נציגו של אבו מאזן בגזרת ג’נין – בסוכת האבלים שהוקמה לזכר המחבל מהפיגוע בדיזינגוף
ניצב באחת התמונות לצד אביו של המחבל, שהסתתר היום במחנה פליטים ג’נין כשצה”ל בא לביתו, וכך חמק ממעצר https://t.co/fFMtgEYXLO pic.twitter.com/WZE4xbZONs— Gal Berger גל ברגר (@galberger) April 9, 2022
Another Palestinian official, Fatah spokesperson Mounir al-Jaroub posted a photo of Hazem’s father, Fathi, visiting the mourners’ tent of the family of Ahmed as-Saadi, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunman who was killed Saturday in a shootout with Israeli security forces during a West Bank raid of Hazem’s Jenin home. The image showed Fathi Hazem embracing Saadi’s father.
In his interview with The Times of Israel, Rajoub declined to condemn the two terrorists. He also distanced himself from Abbas’s denunciation of the attacks.
“Palestinians are not terrorists. Palestinians want to free themselves from occupation,” Rajoub said.
“There’s no political horizon, there’s no economic horizon, and there’s no hope to end the occupation. So what do you expect from the Palestinian people?” he added.
Kan reported that Palestinian security forces stayed out of the way during the IDF raid, drawing criticism across Palestinian social media.
Israeli security forces said three people were arrested in the raid Saturday, including a gunman who was seriously wounded in a firefight and taken by military helicopter to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for treatment.
According to reports, the military sought to arrest Fathi Hazem, but he was not home at the time of the operation. He is a former security prisoner who previously served as an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s security services in Jenin. He has refused an Israeli request to be questioned.
On Friday, Fathi praised his son’s actions to a crowd gathered in front of the family home. “Your eyes will see the victory soon. You will see the change. You will achieve your freedom… God, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the desecration of the occupiers,” Fathi said, according to footage.
Ra’ad Hazem went on the run after Thursday’s attack at the Ilka bar in Tel Aviv and was found hiding near a mosque in Jaffa after an hours-long manhunt involving hundreds of security officers. While initially raising his hands in surrender, Hazem reportedly then drew a gun and opened fire on the officers, who fired back and killed him.
According to the Palestinian reports, the troops in Jenin on Saturday gathered evidence from the Hazem family home and questioned other relatives at the scene.
The reports said that relatives of Hazem are suspected of assisting him in preparations for the attack as well as helping him carry it out.
Kan also reported Saturday, without citing sources, that Israeli security forces believed that Hazem had planned to hide for about a week after the Tel Aviv terror attack and planned to carry out an additional assault on the first night of Passover, on Friday.
The Shin Bet security agency has said Hazem had “no clear organizational affiliation, no security background and no previous arrests.”
In addition to the searches, the Hazem family home was mapped out by troops ahead of a potential demolition.