The Palestinian Authority’s Fatah faction is rearming itself in preparation for another attack on Israel. Can they be considered partners in peace?
Several reports were published after Operation Protective Edge about Hamas’ attempts to rearm itself and rehabilitate its terror infrastructure after it was heavily damaged by the IDF’s operations. A new report indicates that they are not the only ones preparing for another war with Israel.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports that Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority (PA), is also engaged in the building of weapons with which they intend to attack Israeli civilians.
The PMW report details a visit by a Russian Television (RT) crew to a rocket-production facility in order to show the production of new weapons.
According to PMW, Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, depleted its weapons cache during Operation Protective Edge while taking an active part and fighting alongside Hamas, firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets.
PMW quotes a masked Fatah terrorist as telling the RT journalist: “We are preparing and developing rockets in the productions division of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – Al-Asifa Army following the ceasefire agreement in preparation for the coming battles.
“During the last war, we fired rockets at the Zionist enemy,” the terrorist said. “We have notified the enemy that we have many more [rockets]. We have also successfully developed the K-132 rocket, which is here beside me.”
PA Chairman Abbas. (Photo: Flash90)
Moderates?
The Fatah faction is widely considered to be moderate and even a partner in peace with Israel. PMW states that is not surprised by the Fatah arms race, having recently reported that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, chair of Fatah, hinted at Fatah’s large-scale participation in the recent Gaza war, stating that it had lost 17 times the number of fighters that Hamas did.
“The number of martyrs from Hamas during the aggression against Gaza was only 50, while 861 martyrs fell from Fatah,” Abbas said.
Author: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel