Palestinian Whose Sons were ‘Martyred’ after Killing Israelis, Now has Israel’s Blessings

Hazem became a Palestinian icon when he refused to surrender himself to Israeli authorities after his son committed a deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv.

By Baruch Yedid, TPS

Fathi Hazem, a former colonel in the Palestinian Authority security services who was wanted by Israel for inspiring terror groups, is now actively helping the PA disarm those same groups with Israel’s blessings, the Tazpit Press Service has learned.

Hazem was lauded on the Palestinian street as a hero after two of his sons were killed as “martyrs.” One son, Raad, opened fire on a crowded restaurant on Tel Aviv’s downtown Dizengoff Street in April, killing three Israelis and injuring another three. After an overnight manhunt, Raad was killed in a shootout with Israeli police in Jaffa.

Another son, Abed Al-Rahman, was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers in Jenin during an arrest raid in September.

Since November, however, Hazem has been working to convince terror groups in Jenin to disarm and integrate into the Palestinian security services.

Hazem also played a key role in mediating the release of Tinan Fero, an 18-year-old Israeli Druze student who was abducted from a Jenin hospital by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Fero was hospitalized in the Ibn Sina Hospital after being critically injured in a car crash. The gunmen apparently believed he was an undercover soldier. Fero was killed when the gunmen disconnected him from medical equipment.

A senior member of the PA confirmed to TPS that Fathi Hazem was a major negotiator with armed Palestinian terrorist groups to bring back the body.

The source stressed, “Without him, we would not have been able to bring Tiran Fero’s body back to his family.”

Immediately after the body was returned, Israeli security forces stopped chasing Hazem.

Hazem is currently in Ramallah, ostensibly for medical reasons. But TPS has been told by Palestinian sources that “this is a fabricated hospitalization,” and that Hazem is trying to convince terror groups to disarm.

“As far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned, Fathi Hazem is an important anchor in Jenin,” a Palestinian official told TPS.

The Fatah leadership from Ramallah asked Hazem to impose all his weight as a senior officer and as the father of two “martyrs” to calm tensions with the terror groups in Jenin.

Hazem became a Palestinian icon when he refused to surrender himself to Israeli authorities after his son committed the terror attack in Tel Aviv.

“They are searching for the rest of my family…My enemies and my people ask me to surrender, and I will not do so until I receive my son’s body and hug and kiss it,” Hazem wrote on his Facebook page at the time.