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Amid Rising Attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority Officials Call for Intifada and Islamic War
Israeli security and emergency responders work at the site of a bomb blast in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Moti Milrod
Why did the IDF launch a major offensive into several cities in Judea and Samaria two nights ago?
Perhaps it is because senior members of the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been calling for an all-out intifada there, and terrorists from all Palestinian factions have been actively seeking to carry out attacks in Israeli cities.
The attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week was just the latest in a series of major attacks that failed at a late stage before their execution.
And PA officials have been at the forefront of the calls for systematic violence.
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadura Fares: “The time has come to express our anger … I ask Almighty Allah to give us inspiration on the correct path and the correct choice, and that we will set out on an intifada against criminal Netanyahu and all his gangs.” [emphasis added]
[PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, Facebook page, July 18, 2024]
The PA-led terror campaign from 2000-2005 that the PA calls an “intifada” left more than 1,100 Israelis murdered, and tens of thousands injured. Calling for “intifada” is calling for a terror war.
In addition, at a conference attended by senior PA officials, including Fares and Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Sabri Saidam, the host made similar inflammatory remarks ahead of August 3, 2024, “the international day to support Gaza and the Palestinian prisoners”:
Conference host: “Allah willing, Aug. 3, [2024] will be a spark for the Palestinian people and this spark will continue consecutively until we will be liberated from the yoke of the occupation. It is not foreign to this people to lead an intifada like this …
The [first] Intifada spread out throughout the homeland. This is a great honor that is to be credited to our entire Palestinian people. In 2002 [sic., 2000] [then Prime Minister] Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then the [second] Intifada broke out and continued. It is not foreign to our people that an intifada like this will set out from Aug. 3.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, July 30, 2024]
These calls for an “intifada” have been coupled with statements by other senior PA officials, such as Mahmoud Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash, inciting to terrorism throughout Israel — what he calls a “jihad”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud 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, and the land of Palestine is a land of ribat and jihad until Judgment Day.
His [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, Allah willing. Palestine will return and be liberated, sooner or later.”
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 9, 2024]
Al-Habbash went a step further, calling for state-sponsored violence against Israel by all Islamic states:
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “All the Islamic states — large and small, far and near — need to adopt the same position, the same effort to protect Jerusalem, from Judaization and the occupation’s plots to uproot Jerusalem from the Islamic body. This is a great responsibility that President [Abbas] wanted to place before the Arabs and Muslims: O Muslims, you must join hands with your Palestinian brothers to take back Jerusalem with all the energy and power we have and by all means and ways.”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Aug. 16, 2024]
The call by Abbas’ advisor that Islamic should “take back Jerusalem” using “all means and ways” — and citing examples of violence and terror — is an explicit call for those states to join the current war against Israel. Israel is currently fighting terror from the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, while Turkey and Algeria have threatened to join the fighting. Al-Habbash’s call for additional Muslim states to join the war at this time must not be interpreted as mere rhetoric. It’s a real threat.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
The post Amid Rising Attacks on Israelis, Palestinian Authority Officials Call for Intifada and Islamic War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.