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Fatah Terror Faction Claims Double Car Bombing in West Bank
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members walking in the West Bank with masks and weapons. Photo: Elder of Ziyon.
JNS.org – The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “militia” of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, claimed responsibility on Sunday for Friday’s double car bombings in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.
In an announcement posted on Telegram, Fatah’s “military” wing hailed the terrorists who carried out the “heroic Hebron operation,” naming them as Zahdi Nidal Abu Afifa and Muhammad Ihsan Yaqin Marqa.
The statement claimed that Friday’s car bombings were a response to “Zionist massacres in the Gaza Strip, the crimes of the occupation in the occupied West Bank and violations against the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.
“The fighters of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades continue their heroic operations against the forces of the Zionist enemy within the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” it said, referring to the Swords of Iron War initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of #Fatah claim responsibility for the weekend bombing attacks in Etzion and Karmei Tzur.
So, will #Abu_Mazen condemn these attacks? pic.twitter.com/G3tuBNGXD0
— Abu Ali Express English (@AbuAliEnglishB1) September 1, 2024
On Saturday, the Hamas terrorist group hailed the previous day’s “double heroic operation” after the car bombers wounded three Israelis. While stopping short of taking responsibility, it called it “a clear message that the resistance will be prolonged and sustained so long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”
In the first attack, a bomb was detonated at a gas station near the Gush Etzion Junction, prompting the IDF to dispatch soldiers to the scene. The terrorist opened fire on the troops, who killed him. A soldier was moderately wounded and an officer was lightly hurt in the exchange.
Shortly thereafter, a terrorist rammed his car through the gate to the nearby town of Karmei Tzur. A security guard drove after the terrorist and crashed into his vehicle, before getting out and shooting and killing him. The terrorist’s car exploded, and the guard was lightly injured in the attack.
On Saturday, security forces raided an explosive manufacturing factory in Hebron that produced the improvised bombs used in Friday’s attacks, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The Israel Defense Forces believes that the Fatah terrorists who carried out the bombings, both from Hebron, coordinated their attacks.
Many members of Israel’s security brass support the Palestinian Authority’s control over parts of the West Bank as a “moderating force,” as opposed to Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist groups.
Members of Ramallah’s “security forces” have a long history of carrying out terrorist attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Last year, Fatah boasted that most of its “martyrs” served in the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.
On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order a broad counterterror campaign throughout the West Bank, hours after Palestinian terrorists murdered three police officers in a drive-by shooting near Hebron.
“Gaza, Lebanon, and Judea and Samaria are part of the same Iranian choke ring that seeks to destroy the State of Israel,” Smotrich said. “We are proving in Gaza that there is a military solution to terrorism. We must prove this here in Judea and Samaria and in Lebanon against Hezbollah.”
In the six months of 2024, the West Bank saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah the West Bank) published on Aug. 1.
During that time, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.
Terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in the West Bank since the start of the year, the group said.
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Two Russian Regions Block Telegram App Over Security Fears
The Telegram logo is seen on a screen of a smartphone in this picture illustration taken April 13, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin.
Authorities in two Russian regions have blocked the Telegram messenger because of concerns that the app could be used by enemies, a regional digital development minister was quoted as saying by the TASS state news agency on Saturday.
Dagestan and Chechnya are mainly Muslim regions in southern Russia where intelligence services have registered an increase in militant Islamist activity.
“It (Telegram) is often used by enemies, an example of which is the riots at the Makhachkala airport,” said Yuri Gamzatov, Dagestan’s digital development minister, adding that the decision to block the messenger had been made at the federal level.
Gamzatov was referring to an anti-Israel riot in Dagestan in October 2023, when hundreds of protesters stormed an airport to try to attack passengers arriving on a plane from the Jewish state. No passengers were injured, and authorities have prosecuted several people over the incident.
News of the plane’s arrival had spread on local Telegram channels, where users posted calls for antisemitic violence. Telegram condemned the attack and said it would block the channels.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the blocks in Russia.
Based in Dubai and founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, the messenger has nearly 1 billion users and is used widely in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Moscow tried but failed to block Telegram in 2018 and has in the past demanded the platform hand over user data. Durov is under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organized crime on the app.
Gamzatov, the minister in Dagestan, said Telegram could be unblocked in the future, but encouraged users to switch to other messengers in the meantime.
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Trump’s Scottish Golf Resort Vandalized with Pro-Palestine Graffiti
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, in Washington, DC, Feb. 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media on Saturday showed images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” was also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action said it caused the damage, posting on social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland said it was investigating.
“Around 4.40am on Saturday, 8 March, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said, adding that enquiries were ongoing.
Separately on Saturday, a man waving a Palestinian flag climbed the Big Ben tower at London’s Palace of Westminster.
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Columbia University Promises to Address Trump Administration’s Concerns After $400 Million in Funding Pulled
A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, in New York, US, April 30, 2024. Photo: Mary Altaffer/Pool via REUTERS
Columbia University’s interim president said the school is working to address the “legitimate concerns” of US President Donald Trump’s administration after $400 million of federal government grants and contracts to the university were canceled over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
In an announcement on Friday, the government cited what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school’s New York City campus as the reason for pulling the funding. The university has repeatedly been at the forefront of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel student protest movement since the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.
“I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns,” Katrina Armstrong, the university’s interim president, said in a late-night message to alumni on Friday. “To that end, Columbia can, and will, continue to take serious action toward combating antisemitism on our campus.”
The Trump administration said the canceled funding is only a portion of the $5 billion in government grants that has been committed to the school, but the school is bracing for a financial hit.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University, impacting students, faculty, staff, research, and patient care,” Armstrong said.
Federal funding accounted for about $1.3 billion of the university’s $6.6 billion in operating revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, according to a Columbia financial report.
Some Jewish students and staff have been among the pro-Palestinian protesters, and they say their criticism of Israel is being wrongly conflated with antisemitism. Minouche Shafik resigned last year as Columbia’s president after the university’s handling of the protests drew criticism from pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides alike.
The administration has declined to say what contracts and grants it has canceled, but the Education Department argues the demonstrations have been unlawful and deprive Jewish students of learning opportunities.
Civil rights groups say the immediate cuts are unconstitutional punishment for protected speech and likely to face legal challenges.
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