Hamas Did Not Take Responsibility for Recent Nablus Attack
The Claim
Hamas takes responsibility for the recent Nablus attack.
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The Hebrew newspaper Israel Today published a report on a recent Nablus attack on December 16, in which a settler was killed while two others were wounded. The report's headline read: Hamas must understand: West Bank attacks will be paid for in Gaza.
The report prepared by Yoav Limor, a veteran military correspondent for the newspaper, stated that Hamas claimed responsibility for the Nablus attack on the evening of the operation.
Photo Description: The screenshot shows the alleged claim on Israel Today’s website in Hebrew.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated Israel Today’s claim and found it misleading. Hamas did, in fact, praise the operation but did not take responsibility for it. In an official statement by the movement’s spokesperson Hazem Qasem, he said the operation is part of our people’s revolution across all areas of struggle.
Photo Description: The screenshot shows Hamas’s statement in praise of the attack.
Other Palestinian factions also praised the Nablus operation, including the Islamic Jihad, whose West Bank spokesman Tariq Ezz El-Din said that the operation proves the importance and utility of ‘resistance’ despite prosecutions and arrests. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)’s Central Committee member Maher Mezher also praised the operation, considering it part of the natural response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.
The factions have always praised all kinds of attacks, even individual operations carried out by unaffiliated Palestinians. However, praising the operation is not the same as claiming responsibility for it.
A shooting attack took place near the Homesh settlement, which is built on lands that are part of the West Bank’s city of Nablus. The attack left one Israeli settler dead and two others wounded. The Israeli military began a search for the attackers and raided several Palestinian villages near the site of the attack.
Photo Description: The screenshot shows a news title published on Palestine Today’s website, which reads: Resistance factions praise the shooting operation that took place near Nablus.
Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri
