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Amid Hostage Murders and West Bank Terror Attacks, PA Urges ‘Resistance … in All Forms, By All Means’
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, July 26, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Palestinian Presidents’ Office
Over the weekend, three Israelis were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in a drive-by shooting near Hebron. On Friday, Palestinian terrorists attempted two car bomb attacks in Gush Etzion, south of Bethlehem. Both cars exploded prematurely after the terrorists were confronted, and then killed, by Israeli security forces. On Monday, another car bombing was attempted by terrorists and was discovered before it could be detonated next to an Israeli vehicle.
Only last Wednesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor — Mahmoud Al-Habbash — encouraged Palestinians to do exactly what the terrorists promptly did — kill Jews.
After falsely accusing Israel of attempting to empty both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of Palestinians, he instructed Palestinians that “the only option” is to use “all forms and means” of “resistance” — a well-known Palestinian euphemism for the use of terror:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “They [i.e. Israel] want to take control of as much territory with as few [Palestinian] residents as possible. The same reason Israel is using for the aggression against the Gaza Strip, it is also using for the aggression against the West Bank …
Our only option is the resistance, resisting these Israeli attempts in all forms, by all means. Anything that could thwart this Israeli plot is our legal right.” [emphasis added]
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 28, 2024]
Al-Habbash’s call for terror joins numerous other calls for terror and “intifada” by top PA and Fatah officials, as Palestinian Media Watch has repeatedly exposed.
Al-Habbash often stresses that the Palestinians are a “people of Jihad” — “holy war” — as he did here when he emphasized that “Palestine is giving its blood abundantly for your sake, nation of Islam”:
Al-Habbash: “Our religion is the religion of tolerance and the religion of human brotherhood. But we are also the people of Jihad and the people of force against those who deserve it from us and against those who want to harm our dignity, desecrate our holy sites, or deprive our rights…
Palestine is giving its blood abundantly for your sake, nation of Islam. [emphasis added]
Al-Habbash, Facebook page, July 30, 2024]
Al-Habbash also called for “holy war” all over Israel, teaching that “the land of Palestine is a land of … Jihad until Judgement Day.”
He promises Israel will be replaced by “Palestine,” saying “Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.”
Statements such as these may have inspired the Palestinian suicide bomber from Nablus who carried out a car bombing in Tel Aviv two weeks ago on Aug. 18, 2024:
Al-Habbash: “Your best Jihad is Ribat [i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic], and your best Ribat is Ashkelon.
Where is Ashkelon? Ashkelon is a city in Palestine [sic., an Israeli coastal city], and the land of Palestine is a land of Ribat and Jihad until Judgement Day. His [Prophet Muhammad’s] dear followers came while carrying out Jihad for Allah to Palestine and Greater Syria, and they liberated it from the Byzantine occupation. Saladin liberated it from the Crusader occupation. And today it will be liberated [again], Allah willing. Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.” [emphasis added]
[Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 9, 2024]
Al-Habbash: ‘‘’Your best Jihad is Ribat, and your best Ribat is in Ashkelon. Where is Ashkelon? It’s the coast of Palestine. These Palestinian coastal cities, which were built by the Palestinians, this land here, it was theirs thousands of years ago, even before our lord Abraham came.This land belonged to the Palestinians, and it still belongs to the Palestinians, and it will belong to the Palestinians.
And the final picture — I see it like I’m seeing you — is Palestinian par excellence. This is the promise of Prophet [Muhammad], and this is the promise of Allah. The Gaza Strip today is the sister of Ashkelon … No one has a connection to the Al-Buraq Wall [i.e., the Western Wall] except for the Muslims, absolutely! Our lord Solomon was not here, his kingdom was not even here. And even if it was here, Solomon is a Muslim, on the path of Muhammad and Abraham [the Muslim].” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV Live, Feb.9, 2024]
Itamar Marcus is Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Amid Hostage Murders and West Bank Terror Attacks, PA Urges ‘Resistance … in All Forms, By All Means’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
The post Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.