Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh on Sunday made a rare visit to the Jenin refugee camp, where he met with the father of the terrorist who carried out the attack on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv this past April, Haaretz reported.
During the meeting with the father of the terrorist, Shtayyeh lashed out at Israel and said it does not want peace.
According to Fatah party sources, Shtayyeh also visited the mourning tent for the attacker behind the shooting of a bus carrying Israeli soldiers in the Jordan Valley, who died of his wounds this week.
During the meeting with Fatih Hazem, father of Tel Aviv terrorist Raed Hazem, Shtayyeh said that "Israel does not want order or peace and Palestinian blood finances Israeli election campaigns."
"Israel is fighting us by harming livelihoods and expropriating land and speeding up the settlement project, but this will not deter us," Shtayyeh added. "Bless the parents of the martyrs and the prisoners."
Three Israelis were murdered in the Tel Aviv attack: Tomer Morad, Eytam Magini and Barak Lufan.
Hazem was eliminated by Israeli security forces hours after the April attack. The terrorist was located by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) holed up near a mosque in Jaffa and was eliminated during an exchange of gunfire with Shin Bet and fighters from the Yamam counterterrorism unit.
Senior Fatah officials who spoke to Haaretz said that Shtayyeh’s decision to visit the camp – where IDF sources believe the Palestinian leadership has completely lost control – was intended to convey a sense of unity, while also an attempt by Fatah to undermine Hamas and the Islamic Jihad's popularity in the area.
Fatah, which is led by Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is constantly touted by the West as a “peace partner” for Israel, while its rival Hamas is denounced as a terrorist organization.
However, senior Fatah officials including Abbas himself regularly incite against Israel in official PA media outlets.
In addition, social media pages belonging to Fatah openly call for terrorism against Israelis.
Last November, Shtayyeh took advantage of his participation at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to attack Israel.
"Israel's colonial measures that target land, trees, and water resources call for an immediate cessation of these attacks. Around 2.5 million trees have been uprooted since 1967,” claimed Shtayyeh.
He also accused Israel of stealing 600 million cubic meters from the PA’s water reservoirs every year and of exhausting the resources of the Dead Sea, which threatens to dry it up.
"In cooperation with our international partners, Palestinians are making a great effort in wastewater treatment and renewable energy. For this to succeed, the Palestinian people must control their land and water along with their national and natural resources," claimed Shtayyeh.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Simchat Torah and Shmini Atzeret in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)