Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade Terrorists
Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade TerroristsAbed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

Fatah, the faction headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Monday’s bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem, in which 16 people were wounded.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is Fatah’s so-called “military wing”, praised the attack and said its perpetrators “responded to our calls to carry out suicide attacks as the only way to respond to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.”

Earlier, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad welcomed the Jerusalem attack, with Hamas calling it "the natural response to Israeli crimes, particularly the field executions it conducts, and the assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Islamic Jihad also justified the attack, saying that it "delivered the message that the Intifada would continue."

While all three groups welcomed the bombing, none of them have to this point claimed responsibility for it.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the bus bombing by pledging to find those responsible and "settle the score."

"We will find whoever made the bomb, we'll get to [the terrorists] who delivered it, we'll get to the people standing behind [this attack] and we'll settle the score with these terrorists."

"We're in a constant battle against terrorism - terrorism of knives, of shootings, and of missiles. And also of tunnels. Israel made a great achievement in our efforts to find the terror tunnels," said Netanyahu, referring to Monday's announcement of the discovery of a Hamas tunnel leading into Israel.

MK Bezalel Smotrich called upon Netanyahu to cancel the planned withdrawal of IDF forces from PA cities, citing Monday's bus bombing as "a reminder" of what could happen.