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PA/Fatah Encourage Terror: Use ‘All Possible Means to Defend Our Land’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visiting the West Bank city of Jenin. Photo: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman
The Palestinian lexicon is rich in words and phrases for terrorism.
Words that sound innocent are known by everyone to imply terror — for example, “resistance” and “struggle with all means.” (See below.) The terrorists themselves are referred to as “members of the resistance,” “self-sacrificing fighters,” and — when they get killed — as “Martyrs.”
Using the terms “popular resistance,” “resistance members,” and the use of “all means,” Fatah deputy Mahmoud Al-Aloul encouraged Palestinians to continue with terror to “defend the land”:
Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: “All the greetings on your [Ramallah residents’] behalf to our beloved prisoners … Also all the greetings to the popular resistance … We say to the world on their behalf and on your behalf that we will defend our land. And we say to the resistance members [i.e., terrorists] — you can use all possible means to defend your land … Yes, this is our position as a Palestinian people.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, May 15, 2024]
Fatah is the movement led by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.
Just six weeks after Hamas’ massacre and murder of more than 1,000 Israelis in the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash used one of the “innocent” terms — “battle with all possible means” — to vow that terror will continue:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “We are not in a temporary or limited battle against the occupation. Our battle is a battle of freedom, a battle of liberation from the occupation, and we will continue this battle with all possible and efficient means to get rid of the occupation.” [emphasis added]
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 22, 2023]
A few days earlier, Al-Habbash claimed that Allah legitimizes terror — referred to as “resistance” — because it is “anchored in all the religious and divine laws” as well as in “all the international norms and laws”:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “The continuation of the occupation will lead to a response. And the Palestinian response is the resistance to this occupation, resolve against it, and using all the legal means to get rid of it.”
“This is our legal right that is anchored in all the religious and divine laws and in all the international norms and laws. We will continue this struggle until we get rid of the occupation.” [emphasis added]
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Facebook page, Nov. 17, 2023]
Around the same time, the legislative body of the PLO T–– the Palestinian National Council — also stressed that Palestinians have a right to use terror according to international law:
“The [Palestinian] National Council said: ‘The occupation’s massacres and its criminal acts against our Palestinian people wherever it is, and especially in the Gaza Strip, will only increase our determination to continue the struggle with all means … We say to the occupation that the massacres that it has committed and is still committing will not dissuade our people from continuing its struggle …
[The PNC] emphasized that resistance, self-defense, and struggle against the occupier are a legitimate right anchored in the international laws, until liberation and independence.” [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 14, 2023]
A statement by Al-Habbash from before the October 7 terror attack shows that indeed the current war is just an expression of the ongoing battle against Israel. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has documented for decades that the PA/Fatah endorse, encourage and carry out terror against Israel to “liberate” Palestine.
Al-Habbash emphasized that our people is determined to stand firm and resist the occupation by all means until it leaves, regardless of the sacrifices. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Sept. 17, 2023]
When Israel killed Hamas terror leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri in Lebanon in January 2024, then PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh endorsed him by asking for “mercy” for him and “the Martyrs” — i.e., terrorists, thereby approving and sanctioning terror as a legitimate way to fight Israel:
PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: “When tyranny is a fact, rebellion against the tyranny is a duty. The Israeli tyranny is a fact, and the struggle [i.e., terror] against this tyranny is a right and duty. Mercy on the Martyrs who fell, and mercy on Sheikh Saleh Al-Arouri, whom the [Israeli] criminals assassinated in Beirut yesterday [Jan. 2, 2024].”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Jan. 3, 2024]
On the same occasion, Fatah’s Shabiba Student Movement also expressed support for terror, stating they would “continue [the] path” of Hamas terror leader Al-Arouri and that they “salute all forms of resistance against this occupier.”
The terms “peaceful uprising/resistance,” and “popular uprising/resistance” are used by PA leaders at times to refer to peaceful protest, and at other times to refer to deadly terror attacks and terror waves.
For example, Mahmoud Abbas defined as “peaceful” the murderous terror during the 2015-2016 terror wave (“The Knife Intifada”), in which 40 people were killed (36 Israelis, 1 Palestinian, 2 Americans and 1 Eritrean). During this time, hundreds were wounded in stabbings, shootings, and car ramming attacks.
Abbas said: “We want peaceful popular uprising, and that’s what this is.”
The terms “all means,” “all means of resistance,” “all forms,” are used by PA leaders to include using all types of violence, including deadly terror against Israeli civilians such as stabbings and shootings, as well as throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
In a statement for the 35th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the State of Palestine, the National Council emphasized: ”
On this lauded day, we say to the occupation that the massacres that it has committed and is still committing will not dissuade our people from continuing its struggle and resistance to the occupation, colonialism, and settler enterprise, with all its forms that are anchored in all the international laws. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, Nov. 14, 2023]
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post PA/Fatah Encourage Terror: Use ‘All Possible Means to Defend Our Land’ 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.