Thousands of Palestinians on Friday thronged outside the family home of a terrorist who carried out a deadly attack in Tel Aviv the night before, singing celebratory epitaphs supporting the terrorist and the murder of Jews.
Palestinians marched from the city of Jenin and nearby villages to the Jenin refugee camp and the home of 28-year-old Raad Hazem. They chanted, “Allah’s victory is achieved in blood” as well as other chants calling for the death of Jews.
Hazem killed three people and critically wounded 8 more in a shooting spree outside a bar in downtown Tel Aviv.
Hazem, who was in Israel illegally, had no criminal record. However, he hailed from a family of terrorists.
His maternal uncle, ‘Uthman Saadi, was assassinated while plotting against Israeli army troops in Lebanon. Another maternal uncle, Muhammad Saadi, was a terror operative in the First Intifada in the 1980s.
Retired colonel Fathi Hazem, the father of the terrorist, served in the past as a senior official of the Palestinian Authority’s national security apparatus. On Friday morning he addressed the crowds outside his home, praising his son.
A Palestinian man displays a picture of his nephew Raad Hazem, 28, a Palestinian gunman who had killed two people and wounded several others in Tel Aviv the previous night, on April 8, 2022 in the West Bank city of Jenin. ( JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
“The victory will come soon,” he said. “In the coming days you will see the change. You will be free and independent. God, free the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the occupation,” Hazem Sr said.
Addressing his dead son, he said: “Many died in God’s path before you were even born. Years ago, they gave everything for God and for Palestine…now, we pass the flag to those after us,” said Fathi. “The sword of Mohammad is in your hands.”
Encouraging the young men around him, Hazem went on: “We grow old and weaken, we hand the banner to those after us, now the banner is in your hands, so do not drop it.”
Palestinian terror organizations hailed Hazem as “a lion … who defended Palestine.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a rare condemnation of the attack, his second in a week. His statement, however, made sure to mention both Palestinian and Israeli victims. This is in line with his government’s practice of mourning terrorists.
“We condemn the killing of Israeli civilians in the shooting attack in central Tel Aviv, and emphasize that the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.”
He also used the condemnation to warn Israel against “exploiting the incident to attack the Palestinian people through settlers and others.”
Thursday’s attack was the fourth one in two weeks, bringing the death toll to 14.
The deadliest occurred in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, claiming five lives. Palestinians in multiple cities also came out in droves to celebrate that attack, handing out sweets to passersby.