Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, praised a Monday shooting attack in which a woman was murderedin front of her six-year-old daughter.
The attack left a man in serious condition.
"We praise the hero who carried out the act in Hebron and the opposition/battle which is escalating in the [West] Bank," Radwan said, adding that "the act in Hebron was carried out as part of the natural response to the continued crimes of the occupation against Al-Aqsa [Mosque], the [security] prisoners, and our Palestinian nation."
In an interview with Hamas' Al-Aqsa television channel, Radwan said, "The fire which broke out in Al-Aqsa [Mosque] 54 years ago is still burning due to the ongoing harm done to it by the settlers." Therefore, he said, "The act in Hebron on the date when we mark the fire of Al-Aqsa [Mosque] comes to tell us that the opposition will continue to be the shield which protects the holy places."
Radwan's statements refer to an attempt by a non-Jewish Australian tourist to burn Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. The event is often claimed to be the fault of the "Zionists."
Radwan also emphasized that the "organizations of the struggle" can harm Israel at the time and place appropriate, and that they continue to improve their abilities.
"The Hebron act," Radwan said, proves the scope of the armed "Palestinian" battle throughout Judea and Samaria, its ability to hit the "occupation" even on the home front of Tel al-Rabia (Tel Aviv), and the unity of the battlefronts.
The message of the terror attack, he claims, is that Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are red lines, the "occupation" is responsible for the religious war in the region, and the future holds much greater things, since Israel will bear responsibility for all of the consequences of the "invasions" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the harm to the "Palestinian nation."