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The Palestinian Authority Turns Terrorist Murderer Into a Folk Hero
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
Palestinian Authority (PA) propaganda specializes in taking despicable perpetrators of terrorist acts, and turning them into role models and victims at the same time. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has reported about this phenomenon numerous times.
The most recent Palestinian terrorist folk hero is Walid Daqqa, who died this week of cancer in prison while serving a life sentence for taking part in the kidnapping and brutal murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Daqqa had been receiving treatment at an Israeli hospital.
As it has routinely done when imprisoned terrorists have died of illness, the PA is portraying Daqqa as having been executed by Israel despite his having received comprehensive medical treatment:
The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the crime of executing cancer patient prisoner Walid Daqqa, 62, at the Assaf HaRofeh Hospital. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 8, 2024]
Further attempting to paint Daqqa as a victim, the chairman of the Palestinian National Council, the PA-funded PLO legislative body, also accused Israel in an official PA publication of executing Daqqa and withholding medical treatment.
This evening, Sunday [April 7, 2024, Palestinian] National Council Chairman Rawhi Fattouh held the occupation [i.e., Israeli] government fully responsible for the death as a Martyr of fighter Walid Daqqa.
Fattouh said: “Walid Daqqa was executed through [medical] neglect and non-provision of medical treatment. The occupation authorities rejected the PA’s request to provide him with the treatment he required at specialized hospitals, in a clear violation of Article 4 of the [Third] Geneva Convention that protects captives [sic., Palestinian terrorists do not meet the definition of “prisoners of war” presented in that article]. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, April 7, 2024]
To incite hatred against Israel, the PA claims that the Jewish State abuses Palestinian prisoners through medical neglect, medical experiments, and by intentionally infecting them with diseases. However, the International Red Cross regularly visits these prisoners and has not documented or accused Israel of any of these claims. Likewise, lists of demands occasionally issued by the prisoners during hunger strikes — such as during one in 2011 — include no demands relating to these claims.
PMW has documented prisoners talking about how they “lack nothing” in the prisons, and that “the worst thing about Israeli prison” is riding in a prison vehicle that has no padding on the seat. When PMW contacted the Israeli Ministry of Health in 2007 regarding PA claims of medical experiments on prisoners, the ministry responded: “Clinical testing on prisoners in prison was never approved, never performed, and is most certainly not taking place at present.”
While the PLO Executive Committee’s Secretary General similarly accused Israel of medical negligence and of causing Daqqa’s “slow death,” he simultaneously advanced the narrative of the murderer being a role model who has left behind a legacy that would inspire future generations.
Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein Al-Sheikh mourned today freedom-fighter Walid Daqqa, who died in an Israeli prison today, after being exposed to the crime of medical negligence and the policy of deliberate slow death practiced by the Israeli Prison Service administration against Palestinian prisoners. He stressed that Israel ignores all international conventions, agreements, and human rights regarding prisoners, emphasizing in particular that it deprives them of their right to receive treatment. He considered it a full-fledged crime compounding the series of crimes of the Israeli occupation.
He added that Daqqa left behind a legacy of struggle and sacrifice that will serve as a source of inspiration for future generations.” [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, April 7, 2024]
The secretary general of the Palestinian Writers’ Union idolized Daqqa and other terrorist prisoners even further on official PA TV, suggesting that their heritage should be recorded and turned into educational material:
In our meetings in South Africa with the [National Writers] Association of South Africa, we spoke about the suffering in the prisons, and particularly about Walid Daqqa … This glorious heritage needs to be written down … and turned into instructional material for … schools, training institutes, universities, and cinema. These acts of heroism must be studied. [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Palestinian Writers’ General Union Secretary-General Murad Al-Sudani, April 7, 2024]
Finally, in a program titled Giants of Endurance on official PA TV, the anchor heaped praise upon Daqqa, whom he described as a “leader and intellectual,” concluding that “the body may die, but the doctrine will never be buried.”
Indeed, the PA has been doing everything it can to ensure that the doctrine motivating these murderous terrorists never gets buried. The doctrine is alive and kicking in the PA, despite the talk and attempts at its superficial “revitalization.”
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
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
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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